You Can Run Away With Me, Anytime You Want
by xXMiriamXx
Summary: Story about the guys out of My Chemical Romance and the ups, downs, loves, friends and enemies of their high school year. Revising/ making some changes to some of the chapters and re-reading them cos i'm a little rusty :P Should be up for writing a couple more chapters this weekend! :3 Thank you guys who have stuck it out for aaaaages waiting for a new chapter, you're the best! 3
1. Chapter 21

Lauren's POV:

Another Monday morning. Only this time it was so different. My alarm had been set for 7 so everything would be ready for half eight. I dragged myself out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and a skinny white t-shirt with a purple and pink butterfly printed on the front and grabbed my school bag out of one of the wardrobes. I put everything I thought I would need for the day in there, like my phone, a handful of pens and a notebook. As I was getting all this together I saw Ash stumble out of bed and make her way towards the other wardrobe. She pulled on a pair of black skinny jeans and a long-sleeved red and black striped t-shirt, which clung to her body, so the tiny waist was the first thing you saw. I pulled on a pair of socks as she walked out the door softly. I heard her opening the door to Luke's room to go and wake him up. I walked out, following her, and sticking my head round the door, where Ash was kneeling on the floor pulling a blue t-shirt over Luke's head. "Need a hand?" I asked, giving her a smile. "It's ok," she said, getting him into some trousers as well, then letting him put his socks on himself. "I'll go get breakfast ready then," I laughed, as Luke almost fell over trying to stand on one leg to put his socks on. "Thanks," Ash smiled softly. I could tell she was finding it hard, and she would probably be calling her dad by Thursday to tell him to come and look after his own kid. She would have done that, but then again, she was Ash. Luke was pretty much her life, and I remember how annoyed and upset she had been when her dad moved him in. She had stayed behind for a year without him, so she was probably making up for lost time, I thought, as I put bowls, cereal boxes, spoons and a bottle of milk on the table. Ryan and Scott were still asleep next when I gently pushed the door open and checked. I pulled it back until it clicked shut again, and turned around to see Ash grinning in the doorway, with a squirming four year old in her arms. He was giggling hysterically and I couldn't help but burst out laughing. "What?" she laughed, "he didn't want to come downstairs, so I made him," she laughed, placing him carefully on a chair, and pushing him in. "Ha! Now you can't escape," she said to him, sticking her tongue out at him, and placing herself on the chair next to him. She poured some cereal and milk into a bowl and pushed it towards him, placing a spoon in his hand. "You ready to go after breakfast?" I said, looking at my watch and noticing it was already eight o'clock.

"Yeah, I think so, just got to shove a few things in my bag then we can go," she said, pouring a load of milk onto her cereal. We spent most of the rest of breakfast concentrating on eating, rather than talking, apart from when every so often one of us would say something about starting a new school and what we thought would happen. Ash finished before me and gave me a look across the table as if to ask if it was ok if she went to go and get her things together. As if to answer her I just said that I would watch Luke if she wanted to go back to our room and sort herself out. When me and him had finished I collected up the bowls and took him over to the front door to get his bag that had been packed the night before and put his shoes on. I checked my watch and saw it was twenty-five past. "Ash, you ready? We're going to be late!" I shouted up the stairs, almost as the doorbell rang. I opened the door, still without shoes on, to see Frank there, grinning, and the other guys waiting out on the path. "Just give us a minute," I laughed, opening the cupboard in the hall and pulling out a pair of battered Converse, which had been faithful friends for about three years now. I shoved my feet in them, pulling the backs up as I did, and grabbing my bag. I rushed towards the door, about to shout again for Ash, but then saw her running down the stairs, her bag in her hand, and a pair of hot pink canvas shoes on her feet. "Sorry," she said, slowing when she got to the doorway. "It's ok," I said, keeping an eye on Luke as she shut the door behind her and locked it. She placed the key in her bag and turned to us, smiling. "Shall we be off then?" she said, walking down the porch steps, then taking hold of Luke's hand so he could jump down onto the path.


	2. Chapter 22

Gerard's POV:

She walked out onto the porch, prettier than I had seen her before. I had to wait all weekend to see her again, and for some strange reason, I had missed her. Her pink hair matched her shoes, and her eyes were perfectly framed by a thick line of eyeliner. This time she was wearing a stud in her lip, and a bar in her eyebrow as well, which drew your attention to her perfect facial features. She made her way down the path, holding the hand of a boy who was about four or five, who I guessed was her brother. She tried to keep hold of him, but he wasn't having any of it, and instead wanted to go up to Ray and talk to him. She walked with me up to the turning, but this time, instead of turning left like you did when you walked into town, we took the right turning, which led to a series of streets which all had big houses lined up on each side.

As we were walking along, chatting away to each other I saw that the bruise on the side of her face had been covered up with a load of foundation, and the deep red cut n her lip made less obvious by a deep pink lipstick, which matched with her hair.

We finally reached the school where Luke was being dropped off and we all stopped to say goodbye to him. "This is the right one, yeah?" Ash laughed, bending down to hug him. "Yup," he smiled, giving Lauren a smile, then laughing.

"Ok, I'll come and pick you up again at about 4 then," she giggled, pushing him slightly up the path towards the door entrance. "Bye!" he called, walking quickly up the path and through the doors. "Shall we go forth?" Frank giggled, gently taking hold of Lauren's hand. "How much further is it?" Ash asked, as we carried on walking up a path which led round a bend and then carried on in a long road, lined by more houses. "Oh, you just turn left at the end of this street and it leads to the school," Frank smiled, turning. "Awesome," she said, her voice getting quieter as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and read a text she had just got. "Dad's coming up this weekend," Ash called to Lauren who was walking a little bit ahead of me and Ash. She turned so she was walking backwards, led by Frank, but also being able to see me and her. "Is he? What we going to do with Scott and Ryan then?" she asked, smiling as Frank tried to lead her round the corner onto the path that lead up to the steps in front of Belleville High School. "My dad won't care if they're sleeping in the living room," Ash laughed, as me and her walked together up the path, getting nearer to the steps. I noticed Ash's grip getting tighter on her bag strap and her eyes moving up and down the building, taking in the people and the riotous sounds. She seemed to be getting more nervous as we walked up the steps and through the doors to a wide corridor packed full of people at their lockers, moving in different directions and talking loudly. Ash's eyes were open wide as if this was a complete culture shock. She was gripping tightly to her bag strap now, looking almost terrified. I wondered why she was dealing so badly with it, but before I could try and ask her Lauren kept back a bit and when me and Ash were near her she grabbed Ash's hand and linked arms with her. "Hey Gee," she started. I looked up at her, giving her a small smile, but my mind was whirring, wondering what was going on. "Yeah?" I replied, laughing a little. "Do you know where the principal's office is?" she asked, giving me a grin.

"Oh, yeah, you want me to take you?" I said, my smile getting bigger as I looked towards Ash, who looked as if she was in a whole new world. "That would be awesome," Lauren said, starting to follow me as I led them down a series of corridors, until we got to one where a few offices were, and where a lot less students were, apart from a few people who looked as if they were new. Ash relaxed a little, away from all the hustle and bustle of the main corridors, and released her bag strap from the deadly grip it had been in. "It's just that one there. You here to pick up your timetable and everything?" I asked, trying to give Ash a reassuring smile.

"Yeah, although I don't think Ash and I have many lessons together," she said, squeezing Ash's arm with hers and sharing a smile with her. "Oh, well, you'll probably have some with us guys as well, so at least you'll have someone to sit with," I grinned. "I've got to go to my first lesson anyhow," I said, starting to walk down the corridor the way I had come, going back to my locker. "You guys have a good day, and I'll probably see you soon," I laughed, leaving them to stand and wait for Mr Wallace, the principal of Belleville High to see them.


	3. Chapter 23

Lauren's POV:

We walked through the corridors, timetables in hand, trying to find where our next lesson was. We had missed first lesson going through rules and timetables and everything you have to when your new. After we had been urged out of the principal's office we had compared timetables and found out we had history, maths and English together. Our history was the lesson we had next and we were trying to find a room called B3, which was the English and history corridor. We turned left down a corridor which had F corridor painted on one of the walls. "For god's sake, where the hell is it?" Ash said. I could tell she was worried about the whole prospect of a new school and she wanted to get it over and done with. "I'm sure it's her somewhere," I said, trying to put a reassuring tone in my voice. "Yeah, suppose so," she said quietly. We turned left at the end of the F corridor and finally found where we were supposed to be. We walked down the corridor slowly, studying the letters on the doors. We passed a few doors then saw the one we were looking for: B3. "A..are you sure this is the right room?" Ash stammered. I hated it when she got this nervous, and I hadn't seen it for a long time, so it was quite a shock to see it rise again in her. "Yeah, I'm pretty sure," I said, giving her a smile and looking down at my timetable to make sure I was right. I looked back up at her to see she was biting her lip, but making sure it wasn't the side that was hurt. I took hold of her hand and gently squeezed it, then continued to knock on the door and open it. We walked in and stopped at the front of the class. "Oh, sorry, is this history with Mr Clarke?" I asked the teacher who was writing notes on a large whiteboard. He turned to us and smiled. "You new, huh?" he laughed, "Take a seat, please," he said, turning back and carrying on writing whilst talking about the military in World War I. I turned and saw 3 spare desks, the noticed one of them was in front of Gerard, and then there was one next to him. I smiled at him, and he grinned back. I walked over and took the desk next to him and sat down. "You mind if I sit here?" I asked quietly, trying not to disturb anyone more than I already had done. "No, that's fine," he smiled. I sat down as Ash took the desk in front of him, next to a boy with bleach blonde hair and delicate facial features. I took all my things out my bag and placed them on the light brown wooden desk. Ash did the same and started copying down the notes that had been written down on the board. Mr Clarke turned around and grinned at us all. I thought that history lessons were going to be fun now, mainly because he seemed so energetic and enthusiastic. "Right," he said loudly, clapping his hands together. "Now we've got an almost full house in here, we might as well introduce the newbies." He chuckled. "If you ladies and gentlemen who weren't in this lesson last year would like to stand up, and tell us a little bit about yourself," he said, perching himself on the corner of his desk. I slowly stood up, along with Ash and the blonde haired boy. "Come along to the front so we can all see you," he smiled a nice, big smile at us all. We all walked forward, arranging ourselves in a line, facing the other people. The blonde haired boy made the decision to pipe up first. "Umm.. well hi," he laughed. " I'm Sean, just moved over from New York with my mum, and well.. yeah," he laughed again, his smile lighting up his face. I had to admit that I found him pretty cute, but I already had someone. I smiled when I thought that me and Frank were becoming known as a couple. It was one of the greatest things that had happened since we had moved over here. Ash finally started to talk as well, keeping her eyes off the people who were all sitting staring at her. "I'm Ash, and I moved over from London a few days ago," she gave a weak smile, then decided to carry on, " and well, yeah, that's about it," she giggled nervously. I gave her a reassuring smile and then started introducing myself. "I'm Lauren, I moved over from London with Ash, and we live with our other band mates, and I really hope that this school is not complete hell," I laughed, Mr Clarke joining in with my laughter.

"Ok, so, just so I've got you guys on the register you are Sean.." he trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging. "Cooper," the blonde boy smiled, returning to his seat after the teacher had given him a nod. "Oh, and I'm Ashlee Taylor, but everyone calls me Ash," she gave another nervous giggle, and returned to her seat again, taking her place next to Sean. He gave her a grin, and she gave him a smile back. "And you are Lauren…"

"Ashton," I said precisely, giving Ash a grin as I sat down.

"Ok, now the newbies are part of the historical family, we had better carry on with the lesson," he said, grinning at the class then returning to his whiteboard and carrying on scribbling down notes, the whiteboard pen squeaking as he did so.


	4. Chapter 24

Gerard's POV:

All I could see was the back of her. Her hair reached down the back of her red and black t-shirt. I stopped staring at her back and tried to concentrate on the lesson. I managed to catch up with the notes I had missed, but then I got distracted again. I noticed the blonde haired guy I was sitting next to casually holding out a note to Ash. It took her a moment to realise who it was for, but when she did she took it gently from him and unfolded it on her desk, whilst pretending to be paying attention. She took up her pen in her left hand again, and quickly scribbled a reply on the note. I saw what it said as she passed it back to him. All I read was "loving the accent" written in a green pen scruffily with a smiley face crookedly drawn on. Underneath was written neatly and evenly in black "haha we all know English accents are the best" with a carefully drawn smiley face winking. I felt suddenly jealous of this Sean guy. I mean, hadn't I been the one there for her that Friday night, and I knew I barely knew her, but still. I had tried. I was still trying, but it seemed now she was just ignoring every attempt of mine. Instead she seemed to be more interested in a blonde guy who would probably end up being just like the last one. I was annoyed that she'd open herself up to yet another person like that, but more annoyed at him for trying to impress her, and inevitably hurt her. The note had been handed back and forward a few more times, but I decided to focus on the lesson rather than bothering to act like I didn't care. I sat there, pretending to pay attention by staring at the whiteboard where notes were coming and going. The bell suddenly rang and I jumped a little, startled. Everyone started packing up and walking out of the lesson, chatting loudly as they filed out into the corridor because it was break time. I shoved all my books in my bag, and then pushed forward, moving quickly between Sean and Ash, catching her shoulder with mine so I shoved her a little. I didn't mean to do it, but I didn't look back and apologise either. I heard Ash talking loudly to Lauren behind me as I filed into the corridor and started walking towards my locker. "Do you know if there's anything wrong with him?" she asked. She sounded worried, but I didn't care. I started thinking about Friday night all over again. She was acting like it didn't mean anything. Like it had never even happened. I reached my locker and brutally turned the lock until it clicked open. I tugged it open and threw my books in there. I heard the locker next to mine open and looked round my locker door. I saw the familiar sight of thick, layered pink hair and felt a pang in my stomach. I tried to act like nothing had happened while she was there, preparing to force a smile if she turned to look at me. "If I've done anything to hurt you, you could just tell me, and not be a complete prick about something I don't even know I've done." Her voice sounded thick, and she quietly closed her locker and turned my way, but she pushed past me as I tried to talk, a packet of cigarettes in one hand. She walked quickly, and instead of trying to shout I quickly slammed my locker shut, and started to run after her. I pushed past people, getting sworn at and shouted at a lot. I didn't care though. She was right. I had been a complete prick and had no reason to. I finally caught up with her outside the main school building, round the side sitting under the shade of a tree. I saw a tear trickle down her face as I stood there, trying to think of something I could say to justify what I had done. "Ash…" I said quietly, not sure whether I should try and sit with her or not. "No.. I get it," she snapped. I was surprised by how much this was hurting now. I had managed to hurt her so quickly, and now she had built up the walls against me. Put her defences up so I couldn't get in again. "I don't even know what the fuck you think I've done," she said, sobbing, but then trying to keep her composure again.

"Ash, I'm so sorry," I said, begging her to at least look at me. She stuck a cigarette in her mouth and lit it up, taking a long drag then finally looking at me. Another tear fell down her cheek. "I just want to know why you did that," she said simply, not taking her eyes off mine. "I… I don't know…" I said quietly. I felt so bad about everything, but I didn't want to tell her that I had done it because I was jealous. I didn't want to tell her because I thought it was too early to tell her I thought I had feelings for her. She finished her cigarette and got up, putting her lighter in her pocket, and the packet of smokes in her bag. She walked slowly towards me and looked at her feet. "Just please don't do it again… You're one of the greatest people I've met over here, and I don't want to lose you…" she said quietly, moving her head up and looking deeply into my eyes, fixing her gaze.


	5. Chapter 25

Ash's POV:

I looked at him one last time, threw my cigarette on the floor, stamped it out then started to walk inside. I heard Gerard following quietly behind. He caught up with me and walked with me through the doors of the school back into the bustling corridor. "Look Ash, I'm really sorry, I don't know why I did it, but I promise it'll never happen again… I don't want to hurt you." he said, getting quieter. I looked up at him and gave a small smile, elbowing him in the ribs. "Chill out, it's ok," I giggled. I carried on walking in front of him to our lockers. We both grabbed our books out and shut our lockers simultaneously. We laughed at each other, and I looked down at my timetable. "What you got next?" he asked, looking over my shoulder at my timetable. The bell suddenly rang and I felt myself jump out of my skin. He laughed at me, grabbing my timetable to look at it himself. He reached into his own bag and pulled out his. "Well, aren't I lucky. I've got to put up with you for five lessons!" he laughed, putting his timetable back in his bag. "Do you want me to take you to your next lesson?" he asked, taking me by the hand and leading me down the corridor. Suddenly someone crashed into me, sending the books I was holding all over the floor, and breaking Gerard's grip on my hand. "For fuck's sake!" I looked up at a brown haired boy in a blue t-shirt. He shoved me again, this time into one of the lockers which were up against the wall. "You know whore's like you really should learn your place in this school!" he shouted in my face, raising his hand. I flinched, but realised it just turned into a pointed finger which he jabbed at me aggressively. He stormed off, leaving me there leaning up against the lockers, shaking slightly. Gerard bent down and picked up my books and papers which had been sent over the floor. "Are you ok?" he said, walking over to me, an anxious tone in his voice. I looked up at him, trying to look like I was fine. "Yeah," I said, forcing a small smile, " I'm fine." He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a hug.

"You know if you need to talk to me about anything you can," he said quietly in my ear, then took my hand again and walked me to my next lesson, although this time with a serious look on his face. We stopped outside a room marked F6 and Gerard turned to me again, still a worried look in his eyes. "Are you sure you're ok?" he asked, looking into my eyes. "I'm fine," I said quietly, looking from him down to the floor. "Ok, well my lesson's next door, so when yours has ended meet me out here," he smiled slightly, squeezing my hand then leaving it to drop down to my side. "Ok," I said, looking at his face again. I gave him a smile, but my eyes probably told him something different. I just didn't want to tell him everything just yet… I didn't want him to think any differently of me. I didn't want to lose him, like I had told him. I turned and walked into the room filled with rows of desks, and sat down at one of them. The teacher looked at me and smiled. "Are you the new girl in my class?" he asked kindly. I gave him a small grin back. "Yeah, my name's Ashlee Taylor, but if you could just call me Ash," I said, giving a small laugh. He noted it down in his register as everyone else filed in and then looked up again, moved towards the door and shut it before starting the lesson. "Ok kids, so I'm Mr Johnson, nice to meet you all," he said, writing his name in the corner of the board and the writing the title of the lesson in the middle. I was just starting to scribble the notes written on the board in my notepad when I felt something hit the back of my head. I whipped round and saw a group of three girls, all of them blonde, sitting there, giggling. I glared at them and one of them giggled and waved, while another one of them motioned for me to pick up the note. I picked it up off the floor and turned back to my work. I heard them giggle behind me as I unfolded it and just stared at the five letter word written in the centre of the page. My eyes blurred as I tried to just ignore everything when suddenly the bell rang. I quickly got up to try and leave the room first when the blondies pushed past me, shoving my side into one if the desks. Then suddenly the one who looked like the main bitch of the group turned to me and said sharply "you know its true, just thought I'd make you aware of it," then she gave me a sickly sweet smile and they all flounced off through the door together. I walked out the door as well and saw Gee wasn't out of his lesson yet, so I just stood against the door, wanting to go home and cry, just rereading the note in my hand that just read whore in big block capitals.


	6. Chapter 26

Sean's POV:

I had been sitting there for almost an hour just trying to friendly to him. Although any time I tried to give him a smile or anything he just scowled at me, or just completely ignore me. I started wondering why I was even bothering, mainly because he was acting like a complete prick. I decided to try one last time trying to start a conversation, mainly because after this lesson I didn't want to have to sit on a table by myself eating my lunch. "Are you friends with that Ashlee girl? It's just I saw you two talking in the corridor," I said, looking at my work, but then turning to look at him to see his reaction. His head jerked up at the sound of her name and he turned to me. "Yeah, why you want to know?" he mumbled, sounding annoyed all the same.

"No reason, she just seemed like a really nice girl," I said.

"Yeah, she is, I don't really think you're her type though," he said, looking back at his work as if he'd just said one of those facts of life. I got angry, but then decided he wasn't worth it, seeing as I didn't want to turn anyone against me on my first day. "What the hell is your problem anyway?" he asked, glaring at me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, a hurt tone in my voice.

"Oh please," he said sarcastically. "Don't try and make her trust you then just screw her over like you know your going to," he said quietly, staring at his page so it wasn't obvious he was talking to me. I was taken aback. "What are you talking about?" I asked, curios. "You barely know me, and you're talking about this girl as if you own her!" I snapped. The bell rung and we both looked at each other. I saw the anger in his eyes and wish I had never said anything. "I know I don't 'own her' like you say, but she's my friend, ok? And if you even think about hurting her I'll show you just what I fucking think of that." He said. He sounded really aggressive as we walked through the door. I was shocked that someone I barely knew was talking to me like this. "I get that she's your friend, ok?" I was nearly shouting at him, and everyone was looking at us as we stood there in the corridor, "I wouldn't do anything to hurt her, and I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but you barely know me!" I shouted, not caring how much attention I was getting. "You know what? I know I barely know you, but maybe I just know how to tell if someone's a complete prick out to hurt people," he shouted in my face. "You just stay the hell away from her, because you are totally not good enough for her," he hissed in my face. I knew we had both taken it too far when I saw a blur of pink hair shove in between us. "I don't think you have any fucking right whatsoever to tell me who's good enough for me!" she shouted in his face. Her voice sounded like it had the potential to turn into tears. "If you ever think about trying to choose my friends for me then I will tell you right where to stick your ideas." She turned away from him, slinging her bag over her shoulder and keeping her head down. She started walking away, and I heard Gerard swear under his breath. He started walking quickly after her then he suddenly turned around and faced me. "What, you leaving me to deal with the shit you've caused as well?" He sounded like a complete dick still, but I decided he may have had a point. Everyone was filing towards the cafeteria to eat their lunch so it was hard to find her. We finally got through the doors to the rows of tables set out in a large, white room. Everyone was sitting at their own tables depending on their group and I saw Ash sitting with a bunch of guys about our age and a girl who was sitting with a shortish guy with black hair laughing with him. "Hey!" I called out to Gee and he spun round, looking at me. "She's over there," I said quieter, and he walked over to her and sat himself in the chair in front of her across the table. I sat next to her, worried about what I should say. "Ash…" Gerard started quietly, trying not to draw attention to the others of the group. "What?" She snapped brutally, pulling apart the sandwich that she had in front of her. "Look, I didn't mean it, I'm really sorry…" he was almost whispering, his eyes begging. She started standing up and shoving all her stuff in her lunch bag. "Just leave it ok?" she said, giving him a look as she stood there for a second. I looked at Gerard and it almost looked as if he was going to cry. "Please don't do this," he whispered, although it was almost to himself. "Please. Just don't." she said, snatching her bag up off the table and walking away, not even so much as looking back.


	7. Chapter 27

Ash's POV:

I pushed my way through the crowds of people standing around. They all seemed to be standing around, staring at me as I walked past. I heard laughing and whispers following me as I made my way through the labyrinth of corridors, trying to find the front door. I turned down a corridor and saw a set of glass doors at the end, leading outside to the front of the school. I walked quickly down it, my head down and trying to escape the harsh words and vicious giggling that seemed to follow me. I slammed the side of my body against one of the glass doors, half running down the front steps when I got outside. I knew that I should turn back and I should never have just run away in the first place, but that's all I ever did now to cope. I just got up and ran. I had been doing this for years now, ever since that dark, wet Wednesday in the middle of November a couple of years ago. I shook my head. People always told me it was best to get over things, try and deal with them, but I just put them in boxes and hid away from them. I don't think I had ever come to terms with anything that had happened.

I found myself under the tree I had been sitting under not 2 hours ago. I slumped my body against it and heard familiar voices in the distance. I saw Gee and Sean walk quickly round the corner, but I still didn't look up. "Ash?" I heard Gee's voice but it sounded distant. My head was spinning and I felt like I was going to fall over. "I can't do this," I whispered quietly and I tried to look up. I stumbled forward as the world seemed to turn upside down and I felt a cold sweat crawl down my body.

"Ash!" I heard him shout and felt him catch me gently, guiding my body down as I landed on the grass on my knees. Nothing seemed real and I could tell by the look of worry on both the guys faces I looked unwell. "Look, we can take you to the nurse and talk about this all later, but I just want you to know neither of us meant any of it," Sean said, helping Gee to get me back on my feet. "I can't go back in there," I gasped, feeling short of breath as I tried to get back on my own feet and push them away. I hated all the attention. "You have to, I don't have a clue how to help," he had an anxious tone in his voice, but I didn't especially care anymore. Everything seemed to be slipping away, and I knew they were probably right, but being sent to the school nurse because your having a fainting episode on your first day is never good. "Is there anything we can do though," Sean asked, panic in his voice.

"Yeah, um.. can you just go to my locker and get this little pot of pills that are inside. It's all unlocked so don't worry," I said quietly, slowly laying on my back and looking up at the leaves above me. I heard Sean make his way back to the bustling corridors, leaving me and Gee there. "I'm so, so sorry…" He said quietly, kneeling on the grass next to me. "I don't really want to do this right now," I said, so quiet I might as well been whispering. "Ok, but promise me that I can have a chance to make this better… I just need you to listen, of even pretend to listen, I don't care." His words made me want to cry. I just wanted to put my arms around his neck and hold him close, but every other person I'd done that too had always seemed to take advantage of it. I felt him lay down next to me and take hold of my hand. My first reaction was to pull it away, but instead I turned my head to look at him. He looked deadly pale through worry. I gave him a small smile to reassure him and he gave my hand a small squeeze. "You know," he said, both of us looking up at the leaves, "you're one of the most amazing girls I've ever met… I'm not just saying that either. I… I just don't want to lose you… I don't want to miss the opportunity of having a chance with you…" I looked at him, and he turned his head so his eyes fixed on mine. I felt my cheeks go a little pink and I smiled at him. "He's not really my type anyway," I whispered, giggling slightly. I heard footsteps thumping on the floor. Gerard sat up, still keeping hold of my hand. "Welcome back to fainting city," I laughed, sitting up slowly. The dizziness had mainly passed but I was still moving slowly, making sure I didn't faint again. "Here's those pills you wanted," Sean said, shaking the pot in front of my face. "Thanks," I said, taking the pot out of his hand and shaking two of the small pills onto the palm of my hand. "Sorry, but can you grab that bottle of water that's sticking out my bag," I asked, pointing to the black bag with badges and patches all over it.

"Yeah, sure," he said, walking over and pulling out the water, passing it to me then sitting on the other side of me. I popped the pills into my mouth, and gulped down the water until they were gone. "What are they for anyhow?" Gerard asked, gently taking the pot out of my hand and inspecting the writing. "Anaemia," I said, giving him a smile. "They stop me fainting as much," I laughed. I gently leaned on Gee's body, closing my eyes slightly. He shifted his body slightly and just as I began getting comfy he quickly jabbed my pressure point at my waist and made me jump, squealing. I elbowed him in the ribs as he laughed almost hysterically, and I joined in, wishing that the moment would never end.


	8. Chapter 28

Lauren's POV:

I slowly got up out of my seat, taking Frank's hand as he helped me up. "Where we off to?" he asked, giving me a smile.

"I was going to go and find Ash, although I'm sure she's ok, but she might still be a bit grumpy," I said, thinking out loud to myself.

"Well Gee was with her, so he might've tried to help," he said, reassuring me slightly. I still worried a little about her, but I knew that she would probably be alright. Me and Frank walked through the corridors, talking quietly to each other. "Hey! Wait up you guys!" I heard Mikey shout as he ran up to us. He was closely followed by Ray and they both stopped by the sides of us. We mad our way out of the big glass doors and down the steps. "Now we just have to find them," I laughed, pulling out my phone to send Ash a text asking her where she was.

My phone bleeped and an envelope appeared on the screen with New Message written on it. I pressed the green button to read it. "They're under the trees by the side of the school, if that makes any sense to you guys?" I asked, popping my phone back in my pocket. Frank dragged me by my hand round the side of the school, with me stumbling behind him, trying to keep up. "Come along my love," he laughed, as he charged at three unsuspecting people all sitting under one of the trees. I laughed as Ash looked up at us, a worried look on her face that we were going to crash into her. Frank quickly halted in front of them, flopping down onto the grass in front of Ash, Gee and Sean, dragging me down with him. I fell onto him and we just sat there, him lying on the grass with me sat on his stomach, laughing. "Lauren!" Ash shouted, pulling me onto the floor next to her so I was laying down now instead. I felt a hand grab my ankle and pull me back. "You will never escape!" It was Frank, and as I started to get a little further from Ash she grabbed one of my wrists and pulled back. "I'm stealing her! You will never save her," I heard Ash laugh. It had turned into a human tug-of-war with everyone laughing hysterically. "Mikey! Save me!" I shouted, trying to stop laughing so hard so he could understand me. After he sat on the grass next to Gee, just deciding to laugh at the scenario, I reached up with my free hand and tried to prise Ash off my wrist. Her grip loosened a little and finally she let go. "Fine!" she said, trying to act offended, but just ending up giggling. I let Frank drag me back then sat up, only to lean back on him.

"You guys doing anything interesting tonight then?" Ray asked, looking from me to Ash and back again. "Oh, nothing really, just a little spot of band practice," Ash smiled as her phone gave a beep and she pulled it out of her pocket. "Holy crap…" I heard her mutter under her breath as she read the text. I gave her a confused look. "What is it?" I asked her, a worried look on my face.

"You know dad's coming home Friday night?" She said, putting her phone in her pocket and looking up at me, a dazzled look on her face. "Yeah," I said, trying to figure out what was going on. "Well looks like it's turning into a family reunion," she said, laughing slightly, but still looking a little shocked. "What do you mean?" I asked, laughing. "Well, not only is dad going to be there, but Eve, Kay, Ell and Matt are too," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Holy crap, so you got a houseful then?" laughed Sean. Ash turned to him and smiled.

"Yeah, and don't think you five are getting out of it," she said, looking at everyone, giggling. "Is that your way of saying, Mikey, I think it would be wonderful if you came over Friday night and we would all have a jolly good time?" he said, smirking.

"Yeah, yeah, believe what you want." She stuck her tongue out at him and laid back on the grass again. "Well as you are being so kind as to say that, then I'm sure we can all find the time to stay over," he said, trying to keep his voice serious, but kept sounding like he was going to laugh. "Who are all the others who are going to be there though?" I heard Frank ask, as he started gently playing with my fingers which were spread on the grass. "Oh, they're my brothers and sisters," she laughed, I smiled remembering the days when I would visit Ash a few years ago when her brother still lived in England and hope to god he was there. It wasn't just Ash though, her whole family were drop dead gorgeous. "There's Luke, obviously, then me, Eve and Elliot who are all 17, because we're triplets," she said turning to Gerard, "and if you dare call me Eve or her Ash, just because we're identical, I will not hesitate to stab you," she said with a sweet smile at him. They both laughed and then she carried on. "Then Kayden is 19, and Matt is 22," she finished as the bell rang. We all started getting up to trail inside, but we all carried on talking, "wow, man, you're family is huge!" Ray laughed. We all wandered in through the big glass doors, readying ourselves for another hour and a half of torture.


	9. Chapter 29

Ash's POV:

The rest of the day seemed to just go by. Not quickly or anything, just regular speed, but so did the whole week, which was a bore. I was sitting there in an art lesson between Ray and Gerard, tapping my pencil on a plain white page, excited yet dreading tonight. I turned to Ray. "So you guys coming straight over then?" I asked, starting to draw swirly patterns on my page which soon took the shape of a gothic butterfly. "Yeah, or at least I am," he laughed. "We stopping to pick Luke up as well?" he smiled, sneaking a look at my drawing.

"Yeah he doesn't know that dad's back yet," I smiled, pushing my piece of paper sideways slightly so he could see it better. "Wow," he murmured, "that's amazing," he laughed, passing it to Gerard over my head before I could stop him. "He's right," Gee said, intently looking at all the different shades and lines. He gently handed it back to me, looking up at the clock. "Thank god we only have ten minutes left of this. He's usually a good teacher, but drawing sessions like this are boring as hell," he laughed. I carried on smudging marks and drawing lines on the paper until I finally wrote my name boldly in italics on the back. I jumped as the bell rang and quickly stuffed everything into my bag, apart from the picture which I carefully placed in there, not wanting to crease it. "Where are we meeting the others then?" Gerard asked me, as the three of us slowly made our way to our lockers. "Just outside I think, or at least that's what Lauren said." I said. I was getting more anxious the closer we got to the door after we collected our books. I hadn't seen my dad for about a year, let alone spent a whole weekend with him. My brothers and sister as well had all moved over a few years ago, after mum had left, whereas I had just stayed behind, sleeping on different people's couches and bedroom floors. I was worried what everyone would be like, and what they would think of me. We reached the steps outside the main school building and I looked around, trying to see Lauren or Frank. The were standing under a tree holding hands chatting away to Mikey and Sean until they saw us. Lauren waved at me with her free hand and I smiled, giving her a half hearted wave as I walked up to her. She linked arms with me as we walked through the narrow streets to Luke's school where he was waiting for me on the green outside. He bounded up to me and gave me a hug around my legs as a welcome. I unlinked arms with Lauren and grabbed Luke, placing him on my shoulders as he shrieked. He giggled as he stayed up there, and Mikey and Ray seemed to find the sight hilarious for some reason. I turned around to face the others and pointed up to Luke. "This is Luke, by the way, Luke this is Ray, Mikey, Frank, Gerard and Sean," I said, pointing to each of them in turn. We turned up the small street clearly named Summer Boulevard and I saw the familiar black polished car parked outside my house. I heard the familiar voices and suddenly it all just got too much, especially when Luke started asking questions. I was so scared just to go into that house now, and I had no idea why. They were my family. I let Luke down and he ran towards the house, towards the recognisable voice of our father. "Is it weird that I recognise that voice?" Mikey said quietly, directing the question at Ray. Lauren just turned to look at me and smiled. For a minute all the other feelings just died away and I was as excited as I used to get when I was five and about to see dad. I grinned back at Lauren, knowing the shock they were going to get was going to be mainly all they talked about that night. We reached the gate and I saw the familiar faces I had known for years, apart from they looked a little older. I opened the gate, smiling even though the butterflies inside my stomach were on a mission to kill me. Dad was standing a little way from us as we all filed in through the gate. He put Luke down and started to walk towards me, but out of nowhere Eve ran at me in a hug that nearly knocked me off my feet. "Little sister!" she squealed, hugging me tight then letting me go again, giving me an amazing smile as she moved on to suffocate Lauren. Her blonde slightly curled hair staying perfectly in place whatever she did. It was obvious that she was the prettier twin, and I could see that Sean was thinking that as well as he couldn't keep his eyes off her. I ruffled my pink hair back into place and smiled at dad. He walked towards me grinning and bundled me into one of his hugs. I hugged him back, remembering this from when I was a kid, and I would fall asleep in one of these hugs. They were so safe and secure, everything else just seemed to disappear around me. "Hey! I want to hug my younger sister too!" someone called. "Elliot, shut the hell up," I laughed, as dad let me go and Ell raced into his place, almost picking me up off my feet. "It's true though, you're second youngest in the family, you just can't take it!" he giggled. That was one thing about this family. Although dad had bright blue eyes, we all seemed to have green, and not just hazel-green, but bright green, which is why you could never take your eyes off Elliot or Kay, just because of the shocking contrast of their eyes and jet black hair. I could see Kayden and Matt mucking about with Luke, both of them still trying to get over to me and say hello. I decided to start with the introductions. "So, you guys, this is Eve," I said, pointing to the blonde girl who was standing chatting to Lauren. "And this is Elliot, and those over there are Kayden and Matt," I said, smiling. "Matt's the ginger one, and Kayden is the one with black hair," I giggled. "Oh, and this is my dad," I smiled, looking at Lauren and giving her an all-knowing look as everyone in the group looked dad up and down, from the baseball cap on his head to the battered white trainers. "Holy crap…" I heard Mikey murmur. Dad just laughed.

"I'm guessing you didn't tell them then?" he said, looking at their faces.

"Yeah! How could you miss out a point like your dad is Corey fucking Taylor!" I heard Mikey say loudly, laughing. I turned to him and smiled.

"Now, now, Mikey, don't you get all fan-girl on us," I said, giggling.


	10. Chapter 30

Gerard's POV:

We were all sitting around in the main living room, laughing at each other's jokes and just generally chatting. It was still weird being around someone who had been a hero of mine for years now, but he still managed to make it all seem really relaxed. Luke had long gone to bed and since then the beers had been out for a few hours. "Who wants another one?" Eve said, as she climbed wobbly up from the floor. The were calls of "me," from almost everyone, and she walked towards the kitchen door to grab them. "So, Ashlee, my littlest sister," Elliot started and she gave him a mock dirty look, "don't give me that," he replied to it. "You just can't handle that I beat you by three minutes," he said laughing. Se gave him a smirk and took a gulp out of her bottle. I saw Kayden look at Ash as he got ready to speak. "So how are you and Jack going?" My stomach turned as I noticed that she nearly choked on her drink.

"Oh, I thought you heard, we're not together anymore. Haven't been for about two months or so." I noticed that she was trying to keep her cool and not show her real feelings about Jack. I knew secretly she wanted to pound her brother for even mentioning then just sit in a corner and cry about everything he did to her. I didn't even know the half of it, but I knew it was bad. "I think I'm going to go to bed now," Ash said, as she got up, unsteady, and started to walk towards the kitchen door to put her empty beer bottle on one of the sides. I got up as well to meet her in the hallway to talk to her. I opened the door and shut it silently behind me, as I saw Ash starting to walk up the first few stairs. I was just going to try and talk to her quietly, but then I noticed what she had in her hand. "What the hell are you doing with that?" I asked, trying to keep my voice down. She took a gulp from the bottle of vodka. "Oh please, don't even try that whole 'I care' thing again. It's none of your business," her words were vicious, but I knew she was trying to keep the walls around her up and not let anyone in. She carried on climbing up the stairs and opened her bedroom door. I didn't care if she wanted me to follow her or not as I saw her kick off her dark blue converse and stretch her legs out on her bed. She took another swig and the just stared at me with those brilliant green eyes as I looked around her room. She was still living out of boxes and suitcases, almost as if she seemed prepare to leave any time. She took another gulp, her eyes seeming to challenge me to make her stop. "Why the hell are you suddenly beating yourself up?" I asked, my voice came out angrier than I expected, and I noticed that she flinched slightly. "You need to understand one thing. You have no idea what happened, and you never will," her voice was slurring more after every sip she took from the bottle. "I can decide to try and blur out all the fucking memories whenever I want, and it just so happens that now is one of those times," she said, thinking about the sentence as she went along to make sure it made sense. "Look, I get that he was a complete bastard to you, but you have to stop with all this," I said, walking towards her then kneeling in front of her, looking into her eyes, which were starting to tear up as I reminded her of all the memories. I slowly took hold of the bottle in her hand and took it from her. Se resisted a little at first, but then let it go, along with her composure. The tears sped down her cheeks, leaving grey tracks down her face. I placed the bottle on the floor beside me, before standing up and taking a seat on the bed next to her. I took hold of her hand, and looked at her face, wiping away the tears with my other hand. "I just want you to let me in. Even if it's only this once… I just want to try and help." I lowered my hand from her face and wrapped it around hers, as she opened her mouth to speak. "I…" she started. She quickly got up off the bed an walked to the other side of the room. "I can't do it…" she cried. I carried on sitting there, but turned my body so I could see her. "Just start at the beginning," I said calmly, trying to reassure her it would be okay. She stood and thought for a moment, wondering where the best place to start would be. "It all happened so quickly…" she muttered, turning to me. "After Lily I was a mess… I mean, I just wanted someone to stop me feeling worthless and pathetic. And then he came along. He joined our school after transferring in from New York, and just seemed really nice. We would sit around and talk about nothing for hours, and before I knew it I had fallen for him. Then after a couple of months we got together and everything seemed perfect, you know? But then after a few weeks he seemed to change, like we would have arguments about stupid things, and he would turn up late for things we arranged. Then all of a sudden he seemed to think that I was screwing around with almost every other guy I saw, and he started getting jealous. From there it just seemed to get worse," she said quietly, the tears still rolling down her cheeks as the memories all flooded back into plain view. "He would shout at me, and make me feel shit, an back then I thought I deserved every word. Then it just escalated and he would slap me when we were fighting, and try and throw things at me, like plates and stuff, an as time went on it became a normal thing for him to slap me round the face, or punch me, or do whatever the fuck he wanted. I would just stand there and take it, like every drop of blood or tear I shed would make him love me back. That's all I wanted, just someone to make me feel something." I sat there, trying to think of something I could say to calm her down, but by this point she was just standing there, not being able to make the tears stop, just looking at me for some kind of comfort.


	11. Chapter 31

Ash's POV:

I tried to stop the memories. Every one that popped up in my head was like another kick in the teeth, sometimes even literally. Every punch, slap and kick rushed back, making the tears speed faster down my face. I looked at Gerard. The look of concern in his face made me hate myself. "Ash…" he said quietly as he walked up to me and just held me in his arms. I tried to stop crying and just make everything turn back to normal. I had never told anyone about Jack. Lauren and Ryan knew a little about what happened, but only because once they walked in on one of our arguments. I finally regained control over the tears and they slowly subsided, leaving just the tracks as evidence they were there. Gee finally let go of me and stood there in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. "You never deserved anything like that, and if I ever see that disgusting bastard again, I promise you, I will make him pay for everything he did to you." He moved his hands gently down my arms and clutched my hands. I looked him in his hazel eyes and gave a small smile. "Thank you," I whispered, squeezing his hands gently. "You going to get ready for bed?" he asked quietly, returning the squeeze then letting my hands drop again. "Yeah, I better had," I smiled, making my way towards the wardrobe which my suitcase was in. I pulled it out and rummaged through all the clothes to find a pair of black pyjama bottoms decorated with white skulls and a blue cookie monster t-shirt. Before I realised what I was doing I quickly pulled off the plain black t-shirt I was already wearing to put on the cookie monster one. I tried to do it quickly so he wouldn't see anything but it didn't really work. "What the hell is that?" he said, as I quickly pulled my cookie monster t-shirt down.

"Nothing!" I said quickly, laughing. I hoped to god he hadn't seen what I thought he'd seen. "No, that was definitely something," he laughed and he walked up to me and pulled up the bottom of my t-shirt to reveal the bottom of my back. "Stop it!" I laughed, trying to pull away, but he had already seen it. "That was a dragon right?" he giggled. "Yeah, you caught me," I laughed.

"Wow, Ash, you badass," he laughed. "Seventeen and you've already got a tattoo," he sniggered. "Shut your face!" I laughed, changing into the pyjama bottoms too. "Oh, can you go and grab a few quilts and stuff from the spare room? Sorry," I said, suddenly remembering that Luke was in the room next door sleeping. "Yeah, sure, which way is it?" he asked, still giving me reassuring smiles every so often. "You go out the door and go left, it's the door at the en of the hallway," I said, softly. He walked quietly out of the room, returning a minute later with armfuls of quilts and pillows. He dropped them on the floor near the corner then turned back to me. As he looked at me I yawned, tired as hell. "Go on, go to bed," Gerard laughed, arranging one of the quilts on the floor along with a pillow, taking off his t-shirt then laying on the floor under the quilt, his head on the dark blue pillow. "Ok, night then," I smiled, turning on one of the bedside lamps then making my way towards the main light switch. I flicked it down, then walked back over to my bed, sitting gently on it, before pulling back the covers and getting under them. "Night Ash," Gee said quietly.

"Talk to you in the morning," I said, smiling to myself as I settled myself down, drifting slowly to sleep, still quietly smiling to myself.


	12. Chapter 32

Sean's POV:

We all slowly climbed the stairs, making sure we were quiet because we knew everyone else was asleep. "Which one is it?" I whispered behind me to Lauren.

"That one," she said, pointing past me. I followed her finger to the door and gently pushed it open, trying not to wake anyone up. The room was illuminated by the lamp next to Ash's bed, in which she slept peacefully, still managing to look perfect. I looked around on the floor where a few beds had been made for us all, around where Gerard slept. We all quickly settled down on the floor and Lauren in her bed, quickly falling asleep around each other.

Ash's POV:

"Elliot! Get the hell up!" It was going the same as it had the past couple of months. Get Luke up normal time, breakfast, get ready, then about ten minutes before we get out the door check that Ell was still alive. I heard a groan through his door and decided he was getting up an went back to the bathroom to put on my eyeliner. I heard a bedroom door open and the doorbell ring almost simultaneously. I quickly perfected my eyes, then walked quickly out of the bathroom to grab my bag and shoes, only to bump into an already dressed boy with jet black hair and bright green eyes. "What's the rush?" he asked casually, grinning at me. I walked past him and went in my room, which was almost unpacked finally. I grabbed my bag, making sure my English assignment was mixed up in all the papers stuffed in there. "Ash! Ell! The guys are here!" I heard Lauren shout from the bottom of the stairs.

"Just a minute!" I called back. I ran quickly down the stairs, slipping on a beaten up pair of converse when I got in front of the open door. I looked up at the familiar hazel eyes of Gee and smiled. He returned my smile as I walked out, waiting on the front lawn for Ell and Luke. They finally came out the front door and shut it behind them and we started walking down the series of streets to the school. I had always hated Mondays, but at least with the walk to school it gave me time to think. Gerard had helped me out the past couple of months, since everyone in the family went, with things like getting everything on track. He had helped me and Lauren for almost a whole weekend to unpack all our boxes but never mentioned Jack again after that night. I didn't want to go into all the details about Lily, because I knew that if I started talking about her after all these years, the breakdown would happen all over again. Just the thought of her made me want to stop an sit on the floor and cry. I knew I had never really gotten over her, and Lauren knew that too, which is why I kept pushing Gerard away. I didn't want to hurt him, but I didn't want to make him feel like the rebound guy either. It was so hard to know what was right an what was wrong with everything streaming through my head all the time. We reached the front of the school and everyone went their separate ways to lockers, classes and to talk to teachers about why they hadn't done their homework. Gerard and I stood around at the front, watching everyone else walk off, trying to think of things to say to each other. "Are you okay?" he asked. He had the look of 'do you want to tell me anything?' spread across his face. I decided not to say anything to him, just because I didn't want to cause a scene in front of everyone, and because basically I supposed I didn't want him to know. It was all in the past, over a year ago, so why did it matter now? I forced a smile as a reply. "I'm fine," I said, quietly, averting my eyes from his gaze so he couldn't see the memories flash through my eyes. I knew that my face was a whole range of emotions; hurt, pain, sadness and mostly the look that spreads across your face when you know someone's not coming back. He gently took hold of my hand and gave it a squeeze before letting it drop again. "If you ever want to talk…" he trailed off. The number of times he had used that line on me. It made me feel horrible. I hated keeping things from him, but I just felt that I had no choice in the matter. Every time I gave him the same fake reassuring smile and pretended like everything was alright. At least, that's what it was supposed to be. Didn't people always say that it got better over time? I had found the only way it got better was keeping it bottled up inside, and I wasn't going to change that. No matter how many times Gee said the same phrase, trying to get me to give him just a little bit more of a chance to understand me, he wasn't going to get anywhere. I wasn't going to live through all those painful, shitty memories for anyone, no matter how close they thought they were to me.


	13. Chapter 33

Gerard's POV:

"Hey Ash?" I heard Elliot shout as he walked in the house and closed the door behind him. I looked at her to see if he had woken her up, but she stayed sleeping peacefully on the sofa with her legs strewn across my lap. He walked in through the door to the living room, throwing his bag on the floor as he did in one fluid movement. "Oh, she's asleep," he laughed as he flopped on the sofa opposite us. "Hey Ell," I said, smiling at him as he kicked off his shoes. "Hey," he smiled back. "You had a good day?"

"Yeah, it's been ok, pretty much boring though," I laughed as Ash shifted slightly, disturbed by the voices. "Can I ask you something?" Ell asked, looking at Ash as he spoke. "Yeah," I said, puzzled, "fire away."

"Well, I was just wandering if you or any of the guys knew this guy called Danny? It's Danny Collins or something."

"I've heard of him, like through other people, but he doesn't go to our school, does he?" I asked, still slightly puzzled about where this was leading, but deciding to play along and see where it ended up. "No, he doesn't, I just met him this lunch hanging with us and just wanted to know more about him, because he seemed pretty interested after he found out who I was," he laughed. I relaxed, realising nothing was wrong that I would have to help him sort out and knowing no secrets would have to be kept from Ash. She stirred again, this time kicking her legs off me and raising her head off the arm of the sofa, still only half awake. She pulled her body up, yawning and giving me a kick in the top of my leg. "What was that for?" I laughed, catching her foot before she could pull it away. "No reason," she said, still sounding half asleep, but persisting in kicking me with the other foot. I caught it again, holding both her ankles in my hands. She had her toenails painted a bright blue which stood out from her almost white porcelain skin. "Fine!" she said, not bothering to put up a fight but just starting to twitch her toes that now rested on my leg. "You going to stop with the abuse then?" I smiled, getting a perfect grin off Ash in return. "Sure," she giggled. I loosened my grip on her ankles the presumed she wasn't going to do anything so took my hands away, resting one in my lap and the other on the arm of the sofa. "Do you know what the time is?" she asked, inspecting the ends of her hair casually. "Yeah," I said, pulling out my phone. "It's about six." I gave her a smile as I said it, wanting her to return it again and see her beautiful bright green eyes light up. Instead I got almost the exact opposite reaction. "Shit," she said quietly, leaping up quickly and walking into the kitchen, shutting the door behind her as she went. I heard the hurried clatter of pans and plates as they were pulled out of cupboards. "Is everything ok?" I shouted, getting up out of my seat when there was no reply. I walked into the kitchen, closing the door and leaving Ell sitting in the living room by himself. "You ok?" I asked her as she started pulling things out of the fridge to make dinner. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, but I knew it was a lie from the waver in her voice but trying to cover it up by starting to organise everything. "Right, so Luke, me, Ell," she started talking quietly, almost as if she was trying to avoid any more of my questions. "Scott's staying at Lucie's, Lauren's with Frank and who knows what the hell's going on with Ryan. Are you staying for dinner?" she asked, looking up at me momentarily then walking over to the cooker to turn it on. I could tell she was getting worked up about nothing, but no matter what I did or said it would always be the wrong thing. "I guess so, what's wrong?" I couldn't help but worry as I watched her try to prepare dinner but her mind absorbed by other things. I watched as her eyes filled with tears as she opened her mouth to explain. "He…" she started, "He has to have dinner by six," she said quietly, her bottom lip starting to tremble slightly as she gave up trying and slumped on a chair, burying her head in her hands. "You mean Luke?" I asked, taking a seat next to Ash, leaning to try and see her face. "They say that I can't look after him," she said as she looked up at me. I saw the tears forming in her eyes and I watched the despair become clear in her face. "They say that he's got to go and live with that fucking bitch," she cried, a sudden wave of anger coming over, causing her to push the table away from her, sending it about a metre through the kitchen. I pulled her close to me in a hug, wrapping her delicate body in my arms as the tears started to slowly make their way down her face. "Well what the fuck do they know?" I said, angry at whoever was saying all the shit, but thinking it was probably best to help Ash before I started having a go about them. "They know fucking everything… Eve told her everything… And now they think I'm too wrapped up in my social life and everything to look after him properly."


	14. Chapter 34

Ell's POV:

"Hey Ell! We're over here!" I heard someone shout above all the noise of the canteen. I followed the voices over to the group of guys who always sat in the corner, the group of guys who were my friends. "Hey," I sighed, sitting down at one of the spare seats, starting up a conversation with them about our day so far. "Is Danny meeting us outside today?" I asked, and Josh, my best friend out of the group, looked up to reply to my question. "He should be, I think he's going to be out there in about fifteen minutes so we can hang out." I started pulling apart the sandwich I had made as my lunch, not feeling hungry and definitely not be swayed by the appearance of it. I looked over a couple of tables to Ash and the others, watching her sit there enveloped in her own little world as everyone talked around her, apart from Gee who just looked at her, a mixture of curiosity and worry strewn across his face. "Hey, you coming mate?" I snapped out of my daze as Josh pushed my slightly as everyone started to slowly get up and start walking out of the canteen. "Oh, yeah, sorry," I mumbled as I got up and walked with them. We walked out into the bright sunlight of the outside world, the shouts and shrieks of people louder as we got out into the open. "Hey man! How's it goin'? I heard the recognisable shout of Danny as he ran up to us, again managing to get into school without any questions and just passing as an average student. He reached me with a grin on his face, giving me a quick hug. I smiled back at him, still slightly baffled by just who he was, but hoping to find that out today. "I'm good thanks," I said, joining the others on a bench which had been stolen off a group of people a few years younger than us. "Cool," he said, settling next to me as if we had been best friends for months.

It took over an hour to find out everything I wanted to about Danny, but at least now I knew he was cool, plus, skipping a lesson was no big deal… If anything it was just another bonus. He told me that he'd been friends with Ash when she went to St James High in London when I was over here, but he only knew her for about a year until he came over to New Jersey. He moved in with his mum over here and he'd been living there for just about a year now. I still wanted to know why he had chosen to be my friend and not Ash's, but I still thought that if he had hung out with her before, then he must be cool, because otherwise he would have had at least his nose broken by now. I thought about all of this as I walked home, trailing behind the group of everyone who always seemed to spilt themselves into groups of two – Ray and Mikey usually talking about music or boring lessons, then there was Gerard and Ash, either walking along silently with him looking worried, or every so often she would make the effort to try and have a regular conversation with him, which would usually end in an argument which they tried to keep quiet. Behind them there would usually be Lauren and Frank, who seemed to be almost like the perfect couple. I had never seen them argue or anything, they just seemed so strong together. Then at the back there was usually me and Luke, usually spending our time talking about anything from dad to Star Wars. We finally got to the turning of our street where Mikey and Ray left us, walking straight on back to Ray's rather than turning. We walked past as few of the big white houses and finally reached Frank's, where the usual thing of him and Lauren turning up the path happened, just leaving Gerard, Luke, me and my sister. I knew that she was always going to be a mystery to everyone, just because of the fact that she never let anyone in, and no one ever knew half of what had gone on with her in her life. I mean, none of us even knew why she had decided to move over here, apart from the fact that she had been kicked out by mum, although she seemed like she had been pretty happy staying with friends. I looked at her as we made our way into our house, thinking about all the stories written across her face in another language that possibly no one but her understood, and the fables which accompanied the hidden scars which ran up her arms in straight, horizontal lines. Her eyes caught mine for a brief second and I noticed for the first time all the pain and secrets hidden there, and I realised that my sister would always be a mystery. That was just her. She was never going to change for anyone, no matter how hard anyone wished.


	15. Chapter 1

**Gerard's POV**:

Here I was. Struggling through yet another day of high school. At least I had Mikey and the guys to help me through it, we all felt the same way. The sooner out of here, there better.

I sat there, gazing out a window, until Ray shoved me as the bell rang out. "Come on, man, we gotta get a good spot for lunch," he smiled. I smiled back at him, lunch should be fun, just me and the guys hanging out and catching up. "Sure, do you know when the others are getting to the canteen?" I said as I picked up my bag and walked over to the door of the classroom with Ray. "No idea, they shouldn't be long though, they're on the same sorta timetable."

We walked the rest of the way to the canteen just talking about the usual, things we'd done at the weekend, cool bands we'd found out and some ideas for song lyrics we could try.

We walked through the door of the canteen oblivious to what was going on around us until a voice shouted out, "Hey, guys, we're over here," it was Frank. "How did math go?" he laughed.

"Oh wow, it was the most interesting lesson I've ever had," I smirked sarcastically.

"Hey guys, what are you planning on doing tonight?" Mikey asked.

"I thought we were all just planning on hanging out round Franks tonight, right?" I said, looking around to see all the guys nodding. "Why, what you got planned that's more important than us?" I said laughing.

"It's nothing really, I just heard that this great band that I think you'll all like is playing downtown tonight, they're really good," he replied to me.

"Well, we got nothing better to do, so I say we go!" Said Frank, we all laughed at his enthusiasm, which was a usual thing to do.

**Mikey's POV**:

"So that's decided then, downtown for a spot of light music and some fun?" I smiled.

The band we were going to see had only been in New Jersey a couple of weeks, they were finishing a small tour out here, which I thought was strange for a small band from London or somewhere in England. I had heard about them because rumour went round, as it did, that the lead singer was the daughter of one of these big 80's rock stars, probably where she got the talent from, and the money. But it was pretty hard to tell if she was, mainly because no one knew her real name, everyone in the band all had stage names, probably saved a lot of hassle though.

As the lunch hour drew to an end I had my mind focused on that night. I was going to see if any of the girls from art class were going, because they were friends with another girl I really liked, although she never seemed to notice me. Maybe one day she would though, when us guys were touring Europe with a massive rock 'n roll tour bus, with our names up in the lights of arenas everywhere.

The lunch bell rang and me and Frank said goodbye to the other guys, who were deep in a conversation about Smashing Pumpkins or something or other.

"Hey, Mikey," said Frank, "what's this band called anyhow, I better know the name of the guys I'm going to see" he giggled.

"Oh, they're called Papillon Morte, I think it means something like dead butterfly in French I think," I replied back to him.

"Awesome!" he beamed. "Sounds like it's gonna be an amazing night filled with some grim heavy metal!"

I laughed at him, he was totally right, from what I had heard of these guys, whatever people had said about heavy metal bands with girls for leads, she took it all and gave it the big middle finger, so I guess Frank was right, we were in for an amazing night.


	16. Chapter 2

Frank's POV:

The hustle and bustle of high school corridors never failed to amaze me, people having useless conversations about football, cheerleading and things in their lives that would be forgotten within a couple of months of graduating.

I headed down the science corridor and through the doors at the end leading towards the art room, Mikey walking by my side.

"So, do you want to arrange with the guys to come back to mine tonight and get ready, or are we doing the usual and going back to yours," I grinned at him.

"Well, I'm pretty sure my parents will be cool with you guys coming back to ours, I mean they're pretty used to it already" he laughed.

"Ok, for old time's sake it's back to yours then," I laughed back.

We walked into the art room, expecting a boring lesson through which we could talk about plans for tonight, and future song ideas and lyrics.

We spoke for over an hour until finally the bell for the end of school rang, and everyone filed out of classrooms and corridors to the green outside the school, meeting up with friends and catching rides. Me and Mikey reached the path to the front of the school, where we saw Ray and Gerard, waiting with rucksacks over shoulders, ready to make their way home.

Ray's POV:

We all wandered down the road leading away from the hell we called high school. We carried on walking for another two blocks until we finally turned left, slowly trudging to Gee and Mikey's house. We finally got up the path to the door of the big, suburban house and Gerard got out the key from his pocket and opened the door.

"I don't think our parents are going to be back tonight, so you can all crash here after the show if you want." He said, opening the door wide so we could all get through.

"What should we do to kill a couple of hours before we set off then?" I said.

"Well, we've only got an hour and a half, if we want to get there early, so I would say we get changed and everything, and see after that," Frank said.

We all walked through the hall and down the stairs into the basement, which was our usual hanging out place.

Almost instantly Gerard and Frank went to a mirror with an eyeliner pencil. I guess you never know who you're going to meet on a random night when you're out. I spotted a pile of flyers in the corner and a thought rushed into my head.

"Hey guys, we could set off even earlier and hand out some flyers about that gig we're doing in a couple of weeks, what do you think?"

"That's a great idea!" said Frank from the mirror, one eye closed as he layered on the eyeliner as if he did it all the time. Well, he did, almost all the time out of high school he would wear it, it made him look even more rock and roll.

Gerard walked back towards me and Mikey, who were spread out on a sofa, watching the other two get ready.

"Sounds good, I mean, we can all be ready pretty soon, I just need to get changed quickly, then we can set off taking a load of flyers with us," smiled Gerard.

"Ok, if you go and get changed, us lot can put all the flyers in our backpacks and then set off." I was glad that everyone liked the idea, because not only would it get people interested in our band, but we'd also get to cure the usual boredom of standing outside a gig waiting for the doors to open by talking to people, and not only that, people with the same sort of music taste as us.

While I was thinking all this Gee had gone upstairs, pulled on a pair of black skinny jeans with rips at the knees and a black and red striped t-shirt.

"Ok then, shall we be off?" he smiled.


	17. Chapter 3

Mikey's POV:

When we finally got to the bar where the band was playing we were amazed to see that about twenty or thirty people were already there, probably hoping to get a glimpse of the band before they went in or something. That's always a sign a band is good, when they're still unsigned, only got a couple of singles and an EP out, and yet still have quite a lot of people waiting for them before the show.

The types of people ranged enormously although you could see mainly it was older teenagers with dyed black hair and piercings who had been into metal for years and knew what they liked.

"Wow, I never expected there to be this many people," I said to Frank, as we reached into our backpacks to get the flyers out.

"Means that they must be good though," laughed Frank. The same idea must have been going through his head as well.

"Hey, Mikey," said Gerard turning round to us two, "how about you and Frank start at the end of the line, and me and Ray will take the early birds," he said smiling. You could see he was looking forward to this, as he usually did. Anything to do with music and he would enjoy himself as much as anyone could.

"Ok, come on Frank, let's go," I said, leading him down the line to the people at the end. I had a pile of flyers in my hand, and the first people we came to were a group of guys about 18 or 19 who seemed pretty happy to learn about our band, and find out where we were playing in a few weeks.

After we had stopped and talked to them about influences and genres for a while, we moved up the line a bit past the group, and I turned to Frank.

"Looks like this might go well, eh Frank?" I laughed. We walked up the line a little more, just handing out leaflets until we came to a group of three girls. We handed them all flyers, and they smiled at us.

"You guys are playing here in a few weeks then, right?" one of the girls said to us. I was a little surprised though, because she didn't sound anything like I was expecting. For one thing, her accent. It sounded a thousand miles away from American.

"Yeah, that's right, you don't sound like you're from round here though," I smiled at her.

"No, none of us are," she giggled. "We girls are all from England." She said.

"Oh wow, what are you doing around here then?" asked Frank, looking at each of the girls.

"Oh, we're actually with the band," said another of the girls, I hadn't really looked at any of the others apart from the one who had been talking to us, but when I looked at her I was nearly speechless, she had long, black slightly curly hair, clipped out of her face with a blue butterfly clip, and her deep blue eyes were framed perfectly by the eyeliner that surrounded her eyes. Her face was perfect; not only her eyes, but her lips were also an amazing deep claret colour. "Wow, special people, huh?" said Frank laughing. Thank God he had saved me. I didn't want her to think I was rude, but I was just way too amazed to talk to her. She giggled, "yeah, I guess so, we just knew them all from school back home," she smiled. "So, do you guys like them, or are you just here giving out flyers?" she looked at me. I picked up the courage to talk to her; I mean how often did this happen to me of all people? "Yeah, I'm really the only person out of everyone I'm with who's heard them, but I dragged them along to educate them," I looked at her and she smiled at me. Her friends were keeping quiet until the third one of the group finally said something.

"What are your names anyway?" she asked, mainly looking at Frank.

"Well, I'm Frank, and this is Mikey, how about you girls?" he said.

"I'm Hayley, and this is Will," she said, pointing at the girl who was the first to speak, "and this is Lilah," she said pointing to a girl who was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen, but would probably never meet again.


	18. Chapter 4

Gerard's POV:

We carried on working our way down the line, having little conversations with the people we handed flyers to. I kept looking at Frank and Mikey further down the line, who seemed to have started talking to a group of girls near the back.

As me and Ray got closer to Mikey and the others it was getting closer and closer to the time the doors were opening. When we finally did meet Frank they seemed to be getting on pretty well with the girls and Mikey and one of the girls kept smiling at each other and talking about random things, and laughing. Ray had obviously noticed it too, because he and I just looked at each other and smiled.

Suddenly, everyone in the line started moving forward slowly, the doors had obviously opened. "Hey you guys can come in the line after us if you want, it'll save you going all the way to the back." I looked down the line and noticed that about another sixty people had all queued up along the side of the bar's wall. "That does sound like a good idea," I said, smiling.

"I'm Hayley, by the way." She said to me, returning the smile.

"Gerard," I replied back to her. She seemed like a nice girl, but from the way she kept smiling at me I guessed she was interested, but I didn't have the heart to tell her she wasn't really my type. Thankfully Mikey saved me, taking a minute from talking to the cute girl from the group to check I was ok. "I'm good, just want a drink. At least we're near the door now though. I'm guessing you're great," I said laughing.

"Yeah, her name's Delilah, but she calls herself Lilah or Li, mainly cos she hates her name," he laughed, it was nice to see that those two were getting on, and I'd never seen Mikey smile so much.

We finally shuffled in through the doors into a medium sized room in which the DJ was playing a really heavy song, and already in the middle of the room was a small mosh pit of people getting ready for the actual gig.

I walked up to the bar with Frank, talking about Hayley and asking him what I should do. Strangely enough he told me it would probably be best just to avoid her for the night.

"Yeah, I would only do that because after tonight I don't think there's much chance we'll see them again," Frank said.

"Why'd you think that?" I asked, curious.

"Man, didn't you hear their accents?" he laughed.

"Yeah," I laughed, "I guess so, did they tell you anything then?"

"They only told me they were here with the band, and they live in London where the band originally come from, and in a couple of days they're all going back home," he said, a smirk appearing on his face.

"Wow, look who has inside knowledge," I laughed. "So you're telling me that the people in the band are moving over here?"

"Yeah, that's what I think is going on," he laughed. "Although I don't think Mikey knows that about Lilah yet," he said, glancing over at the two of them talking as if they had known each other for ages.

"Do you think I should go talk to him?" I followed Frank's glance to one side of the bar where both of them were standing.

Suddenly the DJ spoke into the microphone above the music he was playing. "Ok now guys," he said, "So I just got some very good news, you guys wanna know what it is?" Almost as soon as he had said this, almost the whole crowd was screaming at him, wanting to know what he was going to say. "Ok, well a little bird just told me that the beautiful people you all came to see are gonna be coming out in a minute, so I want you lot to scream like it's your last day on earth and you're never gonna scream again!"


	19. Chapter 5

Frank's POV:

After the DJ had said that the band would be coming out soon the whole room was filled with an immense noise of anticipation and excitement. The noise suddenly turned into screams and shouts as a guy of about 19 with shoulder length jet black hair walked onto the stage with a massive grin spread across his face, waved at the crowd briefly then walked round to the back of the stage and took his place behind a medium sized drum kit. The next member of the band to come out was a short, purple-haired teenage boy a few years younger than the drummer who walked on with a black and white guitar slung across his back. Suddenly the crowd in front of me started going crazy and a few of the girls started chanting the word envy. I turned to look at Gerard who was standing by the bar by himself. I gave him a confused look and he shrugged him shoulders. It was a mystery to the both of us.

After a while of chanting and screaming coming from the crowd a tall girl with dark brown medium-length hair who was one of the prettiest girls I had seen there that night stepped out onto the stage, giving an amazing smile and walking to the far right of the stage where a bass guitar was handed to her and she took her place on stage next to a microphone. After the screaming had died down a little another chant started up of Pixie. Again, I was confused as hell, but just watched to see who would come out this time. You could tell when the person they were chanting for came onstage because the noise in the small room became the loudest it had been that night. A short girl, about 17 or 18 walked onstage and took her place behind the lead microphone at the front of the stage.

Gerard's POV:

The girl who walked onstage was nothing like what I had expected. I couldn't help but stare. She walked out, her deep pink hair shining brightly under the stage lights, highlighting her pale complexion, bright blue eyes and flawless looks. She was wearing a knee length, strapless dress with a corset top and netting under the skirt to emphasise her tiny waist. I strangely couldn't keep my eyes off her, I mean, I was used to seeing pretty girls, and usually kept my cool, but she was completely different to the rest of them. Everyone was busy screaming and I saw possibly why they were all screaming Pixie at her when she turned to the other girl who was standing onstage with a bass guitar. As she turned she revealed a pair of black fairy wings attached to the corset back of her dress. She then turned back and started talking into her microphone. "Hello New Jersey," she shouted, making the whole crowd shout and scream again, "We're hoping you're all good, and that we didn't keep you waiting too long," she said, grinning as the screams became louder and settled down again. "Ok, so as you know, we've come all the way out here to end our tour, and as most of you have probably guessed it's because something's going on," again, more screams rose off the crowd so they might get an answer why what a pretty little English girl like her was doing so far away from home. "Well, do you guys wanna know," she said. The anticipating screams were an obvious yes. "Ok, we'll tell you all then," she said, almost drowned out by screaming towards the end of her sentence. She was shifting around, building up the suspense as everyone's screams started dying down. "Well, as you know, my father dearest does some recording of his own, and because he's got lots of work coming from over here, I'm sticking around for a while," as she said this you could see people were startled by this news, "so I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to seeing us around here," she laughed, turning to look at the purple-haired guitarist on the left of her, smiling. I couldn't help but smile too when I heard that. It probably meant there would be a few new kids in school on Monday.


	20. Chapter 6

Mikey's POV:

I must have been talking to Lilah for over 2 hours now, and we seemed to be getting on even better than I could have imagined. We were standing on one side of the bar, towards the back of the massive crowd that had formed to see the so called unknown band. I was standing so I could keep an eye on Gee and the other guys, but spent most of my time staring at her. She was so amazing, and got even more so as I got to know her. I found out that she lived in the outskirts of London next door to the lead singer of the band who was a complete natural for big crowds. She was even better live than she had been on recorded singles and EPs. "So how long have you been in a band?" asked Lilah, inquisitively. "I would say just over a year now, but I've been playing bass for about 3 years anyway," I said, still enchanted by her deep brown eyes.

"That sounds awesome," she said, suddenly going quiet. I looked at her confused, she hadn't gone quiet all night, so why now? "What's wrong," I asked with a concerned look on my face. "It's nothing, I'm really sorry but I have to go now," she said, looking down and trying to move past me quickly. I put my hands on her shoulders trying to stop her, but she managed to push past me and start heading towards the door, almost jogging. I started running after her when suddenly Gerard shouted at me, "Hey Mikey, are you ok?" he look concerned.

"Yeah, I'll be back in a minute," I couldn't take the time to talk to him. I had to see what was wrong with Lilah. I saw as I jogged past him that the look on his face hadn't really changed. I quickly ran out the front doors into a night that had turned into pouring rain. I saw a dark shape walking quickly down the road, but I recognised it even though it was dark outside. "Lilah!" I shouted. I needed to make her stay. She slowed down but still carried on walking. I ran the rest of the way up to her and stopped in front of her. She didn't look up. "Mikey, please…" she started.

"I just want to know what's going on… Lilah, please." I said. By this time we had both stopped. She still looked amazing soaking wet with her eyeliner streaking down her face. "I'm sorry, I just… This can't happen Mikey," She finally looked up at me and I realised that the reason her makeup had streaked down her face wasn't just because of the rain, but I could tell she was crying as well. "What do you mean? Please don't do this Lilah… I… I think I'm in love with you already," I was shocked that I had the guts to actually say it, but at least I had told her. She started crying again, and I started to try and justify what I had just said, "I know I've just met you, but you're more amazing than anybody I've ever met… I mean, we've been talking for hours now and I already know that you're the most brilliant, beautiful girl I'm going to meet in a long time. She started crying harder, and I realised that it was more than I thought. "Lilah, please, just talk to me, tell me what's wrong."

"I… I don't know what to say to you… I think you're absolutely amazing, and the nicest guy I've ever met, and…" she looked up at me again. The streaks of eyeliner were more defined now, and the rain was getting heavier, "I love you too," she whispered, "but you don't understand, this can't happen," she quickly added. "I mean, I'm only here for another couple of days, and there's thousands of miles between us…It would just never work. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. " And with that she left me, standing there, drenched, wanting to scream, or cry, whichever came first, as she walked into the night, the sound of her footsteps drowned out by the rain.


	21. Chapter 7

Frank's POV:

Mikey was certainly right about one thing, this band was awesome. I was really glad that I had been dragged along. I kept sneaking looks at the bassist as well. I don't know what it was about her, but she just seemed so unique and interesting that I had to look every so often. Finally at the end of one of their songs called "Cut Me Up, I'm Pretty As Pie," I looked around the room to see where the guys were. I noticed Ray was still hanging out in the crowd with Will and Hayley. I turned slightly to look and see where Gee was. He was still in the same place as well, standing by the bar, drink in hand. I realised something new about him though. At first I couldn't quite place what it was but then I realised he couldn't take his eyes off the bright pink haired lead singer. I smiled. He wasn't the only one who had his eye on someone in the band. I carried on looking around the room for Mikey, but I couldn't see him. I walked over to Gerard. "Hey, you seen Mikey?" I asked.

"Yeah, he went outside about 15 minutes ago," he replied.

"Ah, ok, thanks man."

I started walking to the door, deciding it was probably best to see that he was ok. As I got closer to the door I could hear the pouring rain coming down outside. I suddenly got worried about Mikey. I didn't want to waste any more time thinking so I quickly opened the door, stepping outside, and shocked by the freezing cold rain. Almost as soon as I stepped outside I saw Mikey standing there, facing the wall, his head leaning up against the bricks.

"Mikey?" He turned his head to face me, so I knew it was him.

"Oh, sorry, I was gonna come back in a minute," he murmured.

"Hey, it's cool, we were just wandering where you went. Where's that Lilah girl?" I asked, curious to get to the bottom of why he had spent so long outside. "She went home... Things just didn't go according to plan," he said, shifting his whole body round and pushing himself off the wall. He started walking back inside when I stopped him. "What do you mean? I thought you guys were getting on really well." I realised that it was obviously to do with that fact things hadn't gone to plan. "Although you don't have to talk about it right now if you don't want to, we can always save it for tonight when we get back or something," I added, not wanting to pressure him too much. "No, I'm ok to talk about it… things just happened... I fell for her, to be perfectly honest, I've never met anyone like her before, she seemed completely amazing."

"What happened then?" I asked, trying to understand the situation.

"She said it was the same with her, but she said it would never work and then she left… she just walked away like it was nothing," He shifted awkwardly on his feet, looking down. I left a pause before I spoke again.

"You can see why she did it though," I said, moving closer to him to check he was alright. "I mean, she lives thousands of miles away."

"That's exactly what she said…" He looked down at his feet again. I couldn't carry on seeing him like this so I stepped forward and just wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. "I'm sorry man… It'll end up good though, yeah," I said, moving back again.

"Yeah, I suppose it's all going to work out," he said, giving me a small smile. I felt a little more relieved, knowing that Mikey would know what to do from now. "Come on, let's go back inside, yeah?" I said, guiding him with one of my hands.

"Thanks Frankie," he said, looking into my eyes.

"It's ok, just know that I'm always here for you. All us guys are," I said to him, giving him a smile. "I know," he said, his smile getting bigger, reassuring me even more. With that we both walked back inside, bracing ourselves for the noise that would hit us when we got in there.


	22. Chapter 8

Ray's POV:

The track that was being performed ended and the crowd went wild again. The band seemed to make everyone fixed, not losing the attention of anyone. I was standing towards the edge of the crowd, half watching the band and half watching the two girls I had met earlier, Willow and Hayley. I was having an amazing night, and decided to check on Gerard and the guys whilst the girls disappeared into the mosh pit in the centre of the crowd. I walked up to the bar, squeezing past half a dozen people in the process. I finally ended up in front of Gee and smiled at him. He grinned back, and I noticed that every so often he kept looking past me, taking glances at the stage. I turned and stood to the side of him, wandering what he was watching so intently. I finally worked it out. "Do you like a girl with pink hair then?" I asked casually.

He laughed and elbowed me in the ribs. "Is it really that obvious?" he asked, turning to look at me. "Only if you know you," I said, smiling, "If you didn't know you, you'd think it was the mile long legs," I laughed, jumping out of the way of another elbow in the ribs.

Suddenly the guitars and drums stopped leaving the singer on her own, just letting out a low growl that slowly escalated into a shout, then the song was done. "That one has to be one of their best they've done tonight," I said, taking a glance around the crowd.

"You just like a girl that can do screamo like a guy," Gerard laughed.

"That's a point," I replied, joining in his laughter.

Gerard's POV:

So my badly kept secret was out. I didn't care though; Ray just found it funny if I thought a girl was hot. I saw Frank and Mikey making their way towards me, getting people having a go at them as they walked through the crowd, because they were both soaking wet.

"Holy shit guys, how much is it raining out there?" I asked, sniggering.

"Just a little bit," Mikey laughed back as a reply.

"Ok guys, so we lied a little bit," Pixie suddenly piped up from the stage, drawing the attention back to her. "I know we told you we were going to be the only band playing tonight, but we thought to ourselves, because you're such a lovely crowd, we're gonna treat you," she smiled. Even though it had been about an hour and a half since the band started, the crowd still carried on screaming at everything she was saying. "So, we're going to leave you with some of our friends, shipped in all the way from England," she carried on, "But before they come out, we just want to give you the heads up that we're going to be hanging out in the crowd, so if you want to come and have a little chat, feel free, because we love every single one of you." By this point her smile had turned into an amazing grin. "So I'd like you all to thank our Stix on drums," she shouted, letting the screaming die down, then starting again "Switchblade on guitar," again she paused before the next member was introduced. "And our little Emerald Envy on bass," She said, smiling at the brown haired girl standing to the right of the stage.

"So may I present to you… Razorblades and Vengeance!" she shouted before heading down the stage steps followed by the rest of the band, pushing their way through the mob of screaming fans to the bar, near where I was standing. The guitarists handed their guitars to their manager and then they all laughed and hugged each other, quickly talking to each other about the show then one by one walking into the crowd to meet the people who had been screaming at the just a couple of minutes ago.

All the other band members slowly walked away, just leaving Pixie. She slowly looked around the room, then walked up to the bar, standing just inches away from me. The guy behind the bar looked up at her and walked up to her. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Um… yeah, can I have 4 beers, please?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure," the barman smiled. "You can have them on the house, for giving us such a great show," he beamed at her. Up close you could see her cheeks go pink at the compliment and she mumbled her thanks before turning so she was facing the crowd. "Talk to her, man," Ray whispered in my ear. I knew he was right.

"Hey," I said quietly to her, smiling, "you played a really great show."

"Thanks," she said, smiling broadly at me, "my throat hurts like hell now though," she giggled.

I gave her a sympathetic smile. Suddenly the bass guitarist popped up next to Pixie and reached across her to grab one of the beers. "Getting on well with the locals then, Ash?" she asked, looking at me and laughing.

"Fine thanks, Lauren," she laughed. Her laugh was amazing, like the most perfect notes put together to make a symphony. "Ok, but if you need any tips, come find me," Lauren said to her, making her cheeks go bright red and making her cough on her drink. "I'm sure I'll be fine thanks," she said.

"Well, you know where I'm going to be," said Lauren, walking backwards a bit, no noticing that Frank was not far behind her. She turned to see where she was going, only to find out it was too late. She walked straight into Frankie, knocking the beer out of her hand, and all over both of them.

"Shit! I'm so sorry," she said, looking apologetically at him.

"Hey, it's cool," he said back to her, giving her a massive smile, causing _her_ cheeks to go red this time.


	23. Chapter 9

Lauren's POV:

I felt my cheeks were going bright red, I mean, I had seen this guy standing towards the back of the crowd, and been thinking to myself that he was pretty cute, but now I had completely embarrassed myself. Not only that, I looked down my front, I was soaking. "Great, now I'm gonna smell like beer all night… attractive," I laughed.

"Oh, it's easily sorted," he smiled. "Wait here a minute." I watched him walk over to a guy who was standing in a back corner of the bar selling our merchandise for cheap prices. When I had noticed him earlier that night I had wanted to punch him for selling our merch for cheap prices without even so much as our permission, but now I guessed it came in useful. He walked back towards me, squeezing past numerous people on his way back to standing next to me. "There you go," he grinned, presenting me with one of my own bands t-shirts. "Thank you," I said, smiling back at him. "I'm Frank, by the way," he said, looking deep into my eyes.

"I'm Lauren," I said, shifting my glance to the half empty beer I was holding.

Suddenly I felt a hand mess up my hair from behind me. I whipped round to see Ryan standing there with a stupid grin on his face. "Lauren-face!" he shouted, the grin on his face getting wider. "What do you want, Ryan?" I laughed, trying to half-heartedly hit him. "Oh, yeah, where's Ash-face? Someone's on the phone for her," he laughed.

"She was by the bar, over there," I pointed, turning back to Frank again, as Ryan went over to the bar to find Ash.

Ash's POV:

I stood there, trying not to stare at the guy who was standing in front of me with his amazing good looks. I'm sure there had been a massive mistake in his head, I mean, he was wasting his time talking to me, when he could have his pick of any girl in that room.

"So you're from London, right? Some of your friends told us earlier," he said, studying my face. "Yeah, outskirts of London, we're all from round there," I replied.

"Oh wow, long way to come out then for a gig," he said, smiling.

"Yeah, well it's a long story… and very boring," I laughed. "My dad moved out here a couple of months ago, to record an album with his band, and I was living with friends because it was summer so I didn't have school. Now though, because everyone's sort of at school we planned a tour that would take us out here, so we could end the tour and settle down… I knew it was boring as hell," I said, seeing that he was just staring at me.

"No, it's not, sorry, you've just got really amazing eyes..." He murmured. Almost immediately after this I felt my cheeks going bright pink to match my hair. "Anyway, carry on, I want to know every last detail," he said, laughing.

"Well, me and the band are all moving in with my dad, basically, because we still have to go to school and that, because apparently if we don't we'll be in trouble," I giggled," and my dad is hardly ever at home anyway, because he does all his recording and stuff in LA," I smiled, still trying to make my pink cheeks return to normal colour.

"Wow, that sounds awesome," he said with a grin, which I couldn't help but return.

"So are you guys in a band then?" I asked, "It's just you four all seem to be together," I laughed.

"Yeah, Mikey, over there," he said, pointing to the brown haired guy who looked a lot like him," he's on bass, Ray, the one who was hanging out with your friends Hayley and Will is on lead guitar, Frank, the one who seems to be getting on very well with your friend Lauren," he smiled," he's on rhythmic guitar, and I sing," he said, his smile getting wider.


	24. Chapter 10

Ryan's POV:

I made my way through the crowd, feeling bad when a couple of people tried to approach me to talk to me. I needed to find Ash, and even though I knew she would hate me for passing on the phone call, she'd hate me more if I didn't.

"Wow, see, I always knew singers were the best people to meet," I heard her laugh. I looked around and saw her standing next to the bar talking to a guy a couple of years older than her with jet black hair. I hated myself. Why would I want to completely ruin this night for her by giving her this phone call? She looked like she was really getting on with this guy, and he looked like he wouldn't just try and screw her over as soon as he got to know her more, which made me feel like a complete bastard even thinking about ruining it all for her. I looked down at the mobile I was holding in my hand.

"Sorry Jack, but she's busy at the moment, she's got better people to talk to than you," I said, wanting to let out all the anger I had against him out.

"I guess I'll just have to come in and talk to her then," he said, frighteningly calm. I felt sick. I heard the line go dead as he hung up. This couldn't be happening… Why would he do this to her? I had to go and talk to her.

I walked as quickly as I could up to her, a look of worry on my face. She quickly noticed me as I walked up to her. "What's up, Ryan," she said, a look of worry spreading across her face as well. "We have to go," I said quickly. The look of worry on her face intensified as soon as I said that.

"Wh..What do you mean?" she stuttered.

"Please, Ash, I'll explain later," I said, grabbing her arm and trying to get her to walk with me to the door. She snatched her arm back and I turned back to her with a pleading look on her face. "Please just tell me what's going on Ryan," She said, studying my face. I saw her look back at the black haired guy she had been talking to happily just a few minutes ago. "I..It's.." I started, until I saw what I had been dreading. He had seen her and was walking through the people of the crowd towards us. He looked angry, but that was normal for him. His bleach white hair was all done up for the occasion. It seemed like time was standing still. Ash spotted me staring and followed my line of sight. I looked at her face and she had gone deadly pale. She looked like she wanted to curl up on the floor and cry her heart out, just from seeing his face. But Ash being Ash kept her cool and carried on standing there, shaking a little and scared as hell.

He reached us and just stood there looking into her eyes with a terrifying glare.

"Jack, just leave her alone man," I said, trying to reason with a man with twice my strength who could snap at any moment. "Why the fuck should I let a slutty little whore like her walk all over me," he said, jabbing the air in front of Ash viciously.

"Please, can we at least do this outside if it has to happen," Ash said quietly, her eyes looking deep into his, she looked on the brink of crying, but I wasn't sure if it was because people were turning round to look at her and he was showing her up, or because she was so scared. "I'm not letting you tell me what to do anymore! You're just a fucking bitch that treats everyone else like shit because they're not good enough for you or something screwed up like that," by this point almost everyone was watching, although the music played from onstage was drowning out most of his shouting. "What do I have to do? I mean, do you know how fucking hard I have tried with you, bitch? Then all you do when I'm not around is screw around with dicks like this," he was getting angrier by the minute, you could see it in his eyes.

"Jack…I…" Ash started only to be interrupted by Jack again.

"You don't need to make excuses, it's fine, I mean, it's all over now supposedly, isn't it?" he shouted, I reached out for Ash and felt her trembling. She was going to do something stupid, I could tell by the way she was setting herself up.

"Yes, yes it…" she started, only for her sentence to be met by the back of Jack's hand slamming across her cheek. She instantly held her hands up to her face, looking down so her hair helped cover it as well. Suddenly out of nowhere the guy with black hair stepped back a little way from Jack, and suddenly lashed out his fist, causing Jack to blindly stagger back, distracting him for long enough until our manager, Sean, came up and dragged him away, shouting at him that he was going to call the police if he ever went near Ash again. The guy who had thrown the punch looked surprised at himself, but then realised what had happened to Ash. "Are you ok," he said, slowly tucking her hair behind her ear so he might get a look at her face. "Come here, I need to see what he did," he said kindly, taking her hands away from her face and lifting her chin up slightly so she was looking him in the eyes. You could see almost straight away that he had done a lot of damage. Her face was wet through tears of pain and fear, and a bright red mark was left on her cheek. The worst was her lip though, where his hand had hit her had split her lip and there was a small trail of blood trickling slowly down her chin. She carried on looking into the man's eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she muttered, and turned around and started to walk away, head down.


	25. Chapter 11

Gerard's POV:

I started to walk after her; I couldn't just let her start walking away from me and never let me see her again. "Ash!" I called after her, but she didn't stop. She reached a door in the corner of one of the rooms. I wandered if it was a side stage door or if it led somewhere else. I had nearly caught up with her when she opened it, revealing a stone corridor. I followed her through it, wanting to talk to her. "Ash, please," I begged. I just needed to see if she was ok. "I need to call a taxi," she sounded tired and angry. I didn't know why but it hurt me as much as it would if it were Mikey or any of the other guys. "It's not too far to anywhere from here, why do you need a taxi?" I asked. I presumed that she would be going home with the rest of the band. "I've got this address," she said softly, digging into her bag and handing me a scrunched up piece of paper, "but I don't know where it is," she carried on. I looked at the smudged writing on the piece of paper that read 49 Summer Boulevard, Belleville. I was taken by surprise for a second. The address was a couple of houses away from Frank's house, but had never seemed to be lived in by anyone. The curtains always closed and no one looking after the garden. "Why do you need to get here?" I was curious.

"That's where my dad lives, although he hasn't been there for a couple of months," she said, moving towards a door at the end of the corridor which had bathroom written on it. She opened it and switched the light on. I don't quite know why but I decided to follow her in, figuring that she would've said if she wanted me to go. "Well you guys can walk home with us then," I said, she looked at me in the mirror as she inspected her lip and the bruise coming up on her cheek. "Do you live near there, then?" she asked, reaching for some tissue and wetting it under the tap. "Frank lives a couple of doors away," I said, watching her dab her lip slowly, wincing when the pain got too much. "Oh, ok then, that would be nice then," she said, smiling as best as she could and throwing the blooded tissue in the bin in the corner. "Can we leave pretty soon though, it's just I need to get home pretty soon," she said quietly, turning away from the mirror to face me. She started leaning on the white painted wall of the small room we were in. "Sure, we can go and get everyone and leave as soon as we go back in if you want," I smiled. She looked down at her feet and her candyfloss coloured hair fell over her face. "Thank you," she muttered, not looking at me.

"It's ok, it shouldn't take us long to get back, only about ten minutes," I said, trying to get a glimpse of her perfect face through her hair. "You know what I mean," she said looking up again and flicking her hair out of her face. "I'm sorry about what happened, and I just wanted to say thank you… He's done that before which is why people tend to stay away… especially if they're guys," she said, looking deep into my eyes. "He's a prick, you don't deserve that," I said, wishing to myself that I'd get to see her amazing smile at least one more time that night. After that I would be able to sleep tonight, picturing her beautiful face. "People say that a lot, but he's not really," she started, then paused, looking for the right words, "He needs someone to always be there, make him feel like he's the only one. But I'm not really the best one to do that because I'm always out playing gigs and I suppose he always assumes the worst," she said. She seemed to have thought about it a lot, almost as if the whole time she had known him she had had to defend him. "Still doesn't mean he should do that," I said, moving towards her and inspecting her lip. I noticed that under her lip on the right was a small hole where she had it pierced. "He never means to… I mean, he always tries so hard to make up for it," she said softly, "but he lives back in London anyway, so it would've had to end anyway… I've wanted to call if off for about six months but never had the guts, dreading how he would react, but then when I did before I came over about a month ago he just left me sitting in his flat while he went and drank himself stupid… I suppose it wasn't really fair on him," she said quietly.

"You're crazy," I smiled at her.

"Oh, you've only just caught on," she giggled. I couldn't help but carry on smile as I looked at her. "Do you want to go back in and find the others so we can home?" I asked, looking into her bright blue eyes. "Yeah, I have to get home quickly," she said, pushing herself off the wall and opening the door leading back to the corridor. "Why are you in such a hurry to get home anyway?" I asked, following Ash through the door she held open for me. "Oh, my little brother's at home. I mean, Lilah's looking after him until she gets picked up, which is in about fifteen minutes." She said, making her way to the door that led back into the main room at the other end of the corridor. "Ah, makes sense," I laughed. She tugged open the grey door and instantly the sound hit us like a bomb. She held it open for me again as she walked through it, turning to look at me as she did.


	26. Chapter 12

Lauren's POV:

Scott and Ryan were standing with me and Frank babbling about Ash. She hadn't helped the situation by walking away almost as soon as it had happened, but Frank assured us that Gerard would make sure she was ok. Ray started to walk up to us to join in the conversation. "Who the hell was that?" he asked, standing next to Frank, but looking at me. "It's a long story… Basically evil ex-boyfriend," I sighed, wandering how all this had happened in the first place. I looked at Scott who was pale with worry. "I'm sure she's fine," I said, trying to reassure myself as well.

"I'm gonna kill that bastard," he said, the anger mixing with the worry in his voice. I looked towards the door which Ash and Gerard had gone through, wondering when she would be coming back in. I suddenly saw the door open and Ash walked through it, turning round to Gerard as she did, saying something to him. She turned back around and looked towards me, slowly walking in my direction. Scott followed my eyes and let out a light gasp when he saw Ash. He pushed through people to meet her on her way over to us. When he finally got to her, he didn't say anything, he just pulled her close to him and tightly wrapped his arms around her. I saw her whisper her apologies to him as he loosened his grip, letting her go again so she could carry on walking over to us. As she got closer to us I saw Ryan turn to look at me, the worry had passed from his face, replaced by an emotion I couldn't quite place. Ash finally reached us and stood there, facing me with Gerard and Scott standing behind her. Ryan didn't even turn to acknowledge her. I finally knew what was up. We were all a little angry at her… although it was for strange reasons, like her not ever standing up for herself and letting Jack completely take advantage of her. Although most of us had let our relief that she was ok overrule the slight anger, Ryan had done the opposite. He carried on staring at me, but not making eye contact. "Hey, Frank," Gerard finally broke the silence, "is it ok if we all crash at yours, it's just I've got to show Ash where she lives and it's like two doors down from yours," he said, looking towards Ash.

"Yeah, my mum's staying at her sisters, so the house will be all ours," he smiled.

"Do you mind if we leave about now? It's just I have to get home," Ash said quietly, every so often glancing towards Ryan, trying to get him to look at her. "Yeah, that's cool, I'll just go and get Mikey, you guys meet me outside," said Frank. Gerard started to guide Ash with his arm, noticing that something was on her mind. They were both closely followed by Scott and Ryan, who was keeping his head down to avoid looking at Ash. We walked with me at the back with Ray until we got half way across the room. I couldn't help it, I needed to talk to Ryan, to tell him to stop giving Ash a hard time. I jabbed him hard in the back and he spun around and glared at me. "What?" he asked viciously.

"Stop it," I said, keeping my voice calm.

"Stop what? I'm not doing anything," he replied.

"Come on, Ryan, you know she's had a hard time. If you need to give her all that, at least save it for another day, and not one where she really needs her best friend." I said, pleading with my eyes. His face was suddenly filled with regret, and he glanced at Ash, who was quietly talking to Gerard. "I just don't understand her…" he sighed, slowing down a little so I could walk next to him. We went through the door to the outside world which was cold and wet, but at least it wasn't raining anymore. I gave Ryan a reassuring smile. "You think any of us do?" I laughed, stopping outside the door to wait for Frank to come back out.


	27. Chapter 13

Mikey's POV:

"So how long have you been living around here then?" Hayley asked me, inspecting my face intently, Will standing next to her, shifting slightly on her feet. "Me and Gee have been living in Belleville all our lives," I said, giving her a small smile yet thinking to myself about my hatred for small talk. "Oh cool," she said, turning to look at Will when her phone suddenly lit up and made a short ring to indicate she had a new text message. "Oooh, is it that Tom guy again," Hayley said, laughing.

"No, it's Lilah," she said, studying the message. "She's asking when Ash is getting home, because her dad is picking her up at one."

"What time is it now?" Hayley asked, moving slightly so she could see the text.

"Twenty too," Will replied, closing the message on her phone and pushing the mobile back into her jean's pocket. "Shall we go and find Ash then, set off back home so we can see her off?" Hayley said, looking up at Will.

"Yeah, probably best, I mean, Ash won't want to miss her leaving, she's not seeing her for months." Will replied back to her.

I was wishing to myself that they would stop talking about it. Every word they said reminded me of every muffled step she took outside in the rain.

I suddenly felt someone tap me gently on the shoulder and Hayley and Will looked up to see who was standing beside me as I turned to see Frank standing there, smiling at me. "Hey, we're all leaving now, Ash said she needs to get home soon, and seeing as she lives a couple of doors down from me, we said we'd walk her home," he said, looking at me and the girls.

"Oh right," Hayley laughed, "we were about to see where she had got to because Lilah said her dad's picking her up soon." Frank laughed. His laugh seemed to always reassure me, as it seemed to do with everyone who heard it. It was one of the friendliest laughs I had heard, which was probably why it made me think everything was going to be ok. "Does that mean you two are going as well?" he asked them, looking from Will to Hayley. "Not just yet," Hayley replied, giving him a smile, "Lilah's only leaving now because her dad's been doing some work over here, but he's going home today, and doesn't want to have to wait another couple of days to go home."

"Ah, fair enough then," he said, "I think we better go meet the others and start walking back then," he finished, taking a few steps towards the door, then turning slightly to make sure we were following him. I walked behind the three of them, feeling strange. If we were getting back to see her off, then maybe I could tell her again, try to make her change her mind… I had to do something. I didn't have the strength just to let her go. Frank opened the door and let the girls go out in front of him, then let me catch up to him and went through with me. "Hey man, are you ok?" he asked quietly, making sure none of the others could hear us. As everyone started to walk down the street together as one big group led by Ash, Lauren and Gee, me and Frank stayed back a bit so our conversation was as private as it could be. "Yeah… I suppose so," I said quietly, avoiding his eyes.

"You don't have to see her again, we're going the way so we'll be at mine before hers," he said. Frank had to be my best friend. He always looked out for me, checked that I was ok, and just generally did everything and more than what was expected of him. "Yeah, I'll probably just go and crash on your floor…" I trailed off. "But what if I miss the chance to change her mind… Or even worse what if I miss the chance of ever seeing her again," I said, glancing at Frank's face quickly. He had a sympathetic frown spread on his face. "I don't think I'd ever be able to live if I knew I had missed my last chance to see her again…"


	28. Chapter 14

Lauren's POV:

We were slowly walking down streets dimly lit by streetlamps, turning every so often. I was walking wish Ash and Gerard, who were having what they called a discussion about whether Slayer or Anthrax were better, which included quite a lot of swearing, raised voices, hitting and laughing.

I sneaked a look behind me to see Frank and Mikey at the back. I suddenly got butterflies deep in my stomach as I realised I was going to be two doors down from him. I grinned to myself as I turned my head back to look back at the street we were walking down. We came to a turning which had a sign on the corner with Summer Boulevard written across it, the bold black letters illuminated by the pale yellow light of a streetlight. We turned down the street which seemed to be a quiet place where large, white, family homes were lined up a small street, which ended with a left and right turn.

Gerard pointed to a house about four houses down from where we were. "So that's Frank's house," he said, pointing to one of the smaller houses on the road, "and that one's yours," he said, turning his head and smiling at Ash. The house that he had said was Ash's had a car parked outside. It was still running and we all knew who it was. We reached Frank's house, as Ryan and Scott ran ahead to say their goodbyes to Lilah. "Ok guys, I'm gonna go get the best bed on the floor before you other guys invade," Ray laughed, walking up the path to the porch of Frank's house. "See ya," I called to him, which he replied with a smile and a wave, before he closed the door.

Ash and Gerard carried on walking, with me following closely behind. It didn't take us long to get to the gate which closed off the path up to the house from the pavement. Ash slowly opened the gate, taking in the surroundings as she walked up the path, with Gee at her side. I saw Lilah sitting on the edge of the porch, her bags by her side. I looked behind me to the car to see her dad sitting there, giving her a reassuring smile. I heard the gate close and shifted my glance to Mikey and Frank at the back of the group, Frank quietly talking to him, although I noticed Mikey was avoiding his eyes all through the things he was saying. I turned around and watched Ash run the remainder of the path where Lilah stood up and they both tightly wrapped their arms around each other. I saw Lilah force a smile, which was contradicted by the couple of tears which slowly made their way down her cheeks.

She pulled away, and held Ash by the shoulders, "Promise me something," she said, looking her deep in the eyes. "Ugh, what do you want now?" Ash laughed with her voice thick as if she might cry. "Stay fucking mental, bitch" she laughed, wiping the tears away from her face, and grabbing Ash into another hug. She turned and grabbed her small sized bags from the porch and walked up to me. "Keep an eye on her," she said quietly, before squeezing me half to death with a famous Lilah hug.

"I will," I said, squeezing her hand as she walked up to Hayley and Will.

"I guess I'll see you suckers in a few days then," she laughed, giving them hugs as well, then making her way down the rest of the path. She stopped slightly when she saw Mikey, looking him in the eyes, and then carrying on down the path to the car which was pulled up on the pavement. She opened the back door, threw her bags in the back then climbed in the front. Her dad waved at all of us and we all waved back, smiling politely at him. Lilah started waving frantically as the car drove away to the turnings. I saw Mikey slowly walk down the path, heading back to Frank's house. "I'll see you around then," I heard Ash say to Gee. He smiled her and replied, "I wouldn't miss the chance," he said, looking into her eyes. He then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek gently, before saying his goodbyes and running to catch up with Mikey. "I think we had better crash then," Ash said to us, walking up the steps of the porch followed by Hayley and Will. "You coming, Lauren," Will called to me.

"Yeah, give me a minute," I said as Frank walked up to me to say goodnight.

"So… Do you think we should live up to the standard they set?" he said gently, looking deeply into my eyes. I didn't fully understand, but I knew he was talking about Ash and Gee. "What do you mean?" I asked, my cheeks slowly getting redder. He didn't answer my question, but just replied by leaning in and kissing me. It wasn't just a peck on the cheek either. I didn't care how red my cheeks were right then… A guy I had just met, and really liked, and who was amazing… he had just kissed me on the lips. He pulled back and stared into my eyes again. "I'll see you around," he grinned.

"Goodnight," he said, starting to walk down the path, as I started walking up to the porch steps, smiling to myself. "Hey Lauren," he shouted, I turned as I got to the top of the steps and saw him standing by the gate, just about to open it. "What school are you going to go to?" he asked, smiling broadly.

"Belleville high," I giggled.

"Ok, I'll pick you up at half eight Monday morning then," he said, smiling, then made his way through the gate and walked down the street, grinning to himself.


	29. Chapter 15

Ash's POV:

I walked into the large, spacious corridor, stunned by how white it was. It all looked like the kind of house you would see in an advert of something. Expensive desks placed by the stairs with expensive phones on. I walked through one of the doors on my right into a cream coloured room with massive sofas and a large dining table set placed at one end. Scott and Ryan were already sorting out sleeping arrangements, not seeming to mind they were living here and yet didn't have beds. Hayley and Will walked past me as I stood in the doorway, taking everything in. They walked over to the boys and joined in making a small collection of beds all next to each other which would serve as their bedroom for the next couple of days. "I think I'm gonna crash now guys," I said, suddenly tired as hell.

"Hokey dokey m'dear," Will said giggling as she was half jumped on, half fallen on by Ryan tumbling off the sofa.

"Remember to keep it down," I laughed, as I turned around to make my way up the stairs which had been at the end of the gigantic hallway. I walked through the door and heard Lauren come in from the door. Her cheeks were bright red and she grinned at me from ear to ear. I grabbed her hand as she walked in. "Ok, you are telling me everything that happened right now," I said as I started to drag her up the stairs. She laughed and as we got up onto the landing I heard shuffling from one of the bedrooms. I gave Lauren a look as if to say that we'd been caught as a dazed, short four year old boy stumbled out of his room. He looked around, still half asleep, but almost instantly woke up when he saw my grinning face. "Ash!" he cried, starting to run up to me for a hug, but his tired legs protesting. I bent down and grabbed him in a hug, picking him up off the floor and holding him in my arms. "Well, well, look who it is. If it isn't little superman himself," I said, squeezing him tight.

He gave a big smile and put his arms round my neck. I gave Lauren a look telling her to find our room because I was going to be five minutes. I carried Luke into his room again, which was dimly illuminated by a rocket shaped night light in the corner. His room had everything a space-crazy four year old could want; glow in the dark stars, spaceman wallpaper and so many other things which could only be seen in silhouette in the level of light. I carried him over and placed him in his bed, complete with Star Wars bed covers. "Come on, you've got to go back to sleep," I smiled. "I'm not going anywhere, so we've got all the time in the world," I laughed, tucking the covers around him and giving him a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Alright then," he said, slowly closing his eyes. "Night Luke," I said quietly, backing out the door.

"Night Ash," he replied, his voice getting drowsier every time he spoke. I slowly pulled the door until it clicked shut and then started to make my way to find my bedroom. At last, I would finally get a decent night's sleep, even if it was in a strange new house with even stranger people sleeping downstairs, my body had been begging for a full night's sleep for days, and it was finally going to be granted its wish… as long as what Lauren had to say wasn't too distracting.


	30. Chapter 16

Ash's POV:

I pushed open a white door with a post-it note on saying "Your room's this one, thought you'd prefer the bigger out of the two spares! Made your bed and everything for you as well. Much love, Lilah x". I stared at it, thinking that tonight had been the last time I was going to see her for months. I pushed open the door, holding on to the note carefully. My new bedroom slowly came into view. Mainly it was all boxes which had been dropped off earlier, but on the wall to the right was a couple of large dark brown wooden wardrobes, and as I walked into the room further I saw that on the left hand wall a couple of bed's were placed, pointing into the room. There was a bedside table placed in between them, with a lamp and a phone placed on it. I saw both the beds delicately made, one of which Lauren was sitting on, cross legged. She had chosen the one nearest to a medium sized window, although what it overlooked was a mystery as it was pitch black outside. I closed the door and stood in the middle of the room, which was almost twice the size of my old one when I had lived with my mum.

Lauren smiled at me from the bed she was sitting on. "It's pretty big, huh?" she said, noticing the bewildered look on my face. "All my stuff is barely going to fill this place," I said, looking at the pile of six or seven boxes near the wardrobes. Lauren laughed. "Don't worry, I'm sure by the time you start high school on Monday, you'll have filled this room with presents from tonnes of guys begging for you," she said, giggling. I gave her a sarcastic look. "Oh yeah, forgot about that," I scoffed, walking over to the bed and falling onto it and kicking my shoes off in one fluid motion. I rolled over onto my front so I was looking at Lauren. I smiled an all-knowing smile which never failed to make her blush when something had happened between her and a guy.

Her cheeks went a bright pink and she started grinning at me. "I hate you," she said, throwing one of the pillows off her bed and into my face. "Aww, so nice that you love me," I laughed, catching the pillow and throwing it back. "So?" I asked her, wanting the suspense to end and her to tell me everything that had happened. "Oh, it's really not interesting," she said, smiling and turning around as if she was going to go to sleep. "Oh no," I laughed, "You are not allowed to do that," I said, moving into a sitting position on the bed as she turned back around. "Ok, well…" she started. Her cheeks went bright red again and I laughed. "Well, what?" I asked.

"He kissed me," she giggled, turning away so I couldn't see how pink her cheeks had gone. "No way!" I said, laughing. "Oh my god! And you two are so cute together as well!"

"See, I knew you would do this," she laughed, reaching across the beds and punching my in the arm.

"I'm sorry, but it's my duty as best friend," I said, grinning at her.

"He's so nice though… And he asked me what school I'm going to go to, so I told him, and he's going to the same one," she said with a massive smile on her face.

"Do they all go to the same school?" I asked, trying to be casual, but by the look on her face I could tell I had failed miserably. "I think so, why, you hoping to see more of your lover boy?"

"Course not," I felt my cheeks turning red. I couldn't help but laugh at myself. I took my mobile out of my pocket and looked at the time. 2:37 Am. "Damn, it's really late, we had better get to sleep," I said, moving from the bed and walking towards the boxes, seeing if my suitcase of clothes was anywhere to be found near it. "I think it's in the wardrobe," Lauren said, walking out the bedroom door, her arms full with pyjamas, a tooth brush and a tube of toothpaste. I opened one of the doors of a big wardrobe and saw my suitcase in there, so tugged open the other door. Both of the doors had long mirrors on the doors, and I looked at myself, flattened my hair a little, and then pulled the suitcase out onto the floor.

I unzipped it, kneeled on the floor and started rummaging through the clothes I had managed to squeeze in there. I found my equivalent to pyjamas - an old Green Day tour t-shirt far too big for me, and a pair of chequered bottoms which I had lost the top to a couple of years ago. I stuffed all the clothes back in and threw my skirt, tights and corset top in before zipping it back up. I threw on the pyjamas and shoved the suitcase back in the wardrobe, deciding to unpack tomorrow. I closed the big wooden doors as Lauren walked back in, clicking the door closed quietly and making her way back to her bed. I walked over to mine a little behind her, turning off the main light as I did, leaving just the bedside lamp on. Lauren threw her clothes on top of her bag and then burying herself under her covers, rearranging her pillows then smiling at me as a signal that I could turn off the light. I threw the covers over me and said quietly, "Night Lauren, see you in the morning," as I smiled at her. It was a weary smile I knew that, but at least it was better than nothing. "Night night Ash, sweet dreams," she said, as she turned away from me. I turned off the light at the switch and snuggled down in my covers, falling asleep with a smile across my face as I replayed everything that had happened between me and Gerard.


	31. Chapter 17

Frank's POV:

The light streamed in through my window, disturbing my sleep slightly. I groaned to myself in protest, pushing my hand under my pillow and pulling out my phone. I pressed one of the buttons so the screen lit up. I scrunched my eyes up at first, but then relaxed them in order to look at the time. I groaned again. It still seemed so early. I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes open. I looked down on the floor of my room and saw the familiar sight of Mikey, Gerard and Ray on my floor. I could see that Gee and Mikey were already awake and talking quietly to each other. Gee looked up and saw me sitting there on my bed and smiled at me. "Hey, finally awake are you?" he laughed quietly.

"Yeah," I grinned. I looked at Ray, still sleeping soundly under a miss match of covers. "Sleeping ugly isn't though," I chuckled.

I swung my legs over the edge of my bed and placed my feet on the floor. "You want to go downstairs and grab some breakfast?" I asked, standing up and moving towards the door. "Yeah, sounds good," Mikey said as he climbed up to join me walking out into the hallway. I started walking down the stairs, closely followed by Mikey and Gerard. We walked into the kitchen and they sat down at the light brown wooden table as I walked to one of the cupboards lining the walls. I reached up and opened one of them, pulling out a few boxes of different cereal, then placing them in front of the guys. "Bring us milk you fool!" Gee laughed loudly, as I pulled my chair out, ready to sit down. I laughed, turning around and walking to the fridge, tugging it open and pulling some milk out the door. I turned back to the table and saw a half-asleep Ray, joining the brothers at one of the places on the table. I put the milk in the middle of the guys then grabbed some bowls and spoons off the side, placing one each at the places on the table. I pulled out my chair and sat down, hearing the door open and saw my mum walk into the kitchen, putting her coat and keys on the side, before noticing us sitting at the table. "Oh, hiya Frankie," she said, sounding tired as she ruffled my hair. "Mum!" I laughed, giving her a mock evil stare.

"Oh I'm sorry dear, didn't realise you wanted me to do the same to your friends as well," she smiled. I felt my cheeks go red, just like they had last night. I made myself a bowl of cereal as the others ate quickly through theirs. "When do you have to get home for?" I asked, looking from Way face, to another, similar Way face.

"We were gonna set off pretty soon, while you were off talking to your new girlfriend, we decided we were gonna all set off after breakfast and get some sleep back at home," he smiled, emphasising the "girlfriend" part of the sentence.

"Ah ok, I'll walk you over if you want," I smiled back, thinking if it would be too much of an intrusion if I went to see Lauren on the way back. "Sounds like a plan," Mikey said as he finished his cereal. I realised as I was about to ask if they were going to get changed before they went that we had all slept in our jeans and t-shirts, only needing to put our shoes on to leave. I collected up the finished bowls and placed them back on the side, then walked to the collection of shoes near the front door and pulled mine on, closely followed by Ray and Gee. Mikey stood back for a minute to avoid all the fuss, and once he had pulled on his pair of worn, black converse, I decided to tell my mum I was going. "Mum, I'm walking the guys back," I called to her. "Ok, honey," she called back, although I knew by the time I got back she would be asleep on the sofa in front of the TV.

We all walked down the road and I couldn't help but smile to myself when I heard screaming coming from the garden a couple of doors down. Even though I had only met Lauren yesterday, I could already recognise her perfect voice. We walked over, and the guys looked at me, knowing I wanted to stick around here. "We'll see you on Monday, Frank," Ray laughed, as they walked up the path, leaving me behind in front of their gate. I saw a small boy of about four of five running around, madly giggling, closely followed by Lauren and Ash, chasing him. I watched, grinning as Ash caught him in her arms and tickling him onto the floor. As she was doing this, Lauren turned and noticed me standing there. She walked over to me, smiling broadly. "Well hi there," she said, laughing. She was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans with the Papillon Morte t-shirt I had bought her yesterday. "Hey," I said, laughing. She looked behind her, where Ash was being slightly abused by a small child. I giggled at the sight, mainly because the kid looked way too adorable. "You come to hang out with us simple girlies?" she giggled, looking into my eyes. "Well, not really, if I'm honest, I more came to ask you something," I smiled, returning her gaze.

"Which was?" she laughed. Her laugh was as beautiful as her perfect features, and I felt like I was batting way above my league with what I was about to ask her. "Umm… Well, I know this might sound strange, but… Do you want to go out for dinner or something sometime? It's just… I really like you Lauren, I really do," I smiled, taking hold of her hand over the fence, wishing she would say yes.


	32. Chapter 18

Lauren's POV:

I could feel my cheeks burning up as he held my hand. His grip wasn't too tight, but it wasn't too loose either. I thought to myself about what happened last night and smiled, knowing that if I said yes right now, that could become a regular occurrence. I felt the butterflies in my stomach and I opened my mouth to reply. "That would be really great," I smiled, wanting to ask him what he was doing right then, but not wanting to seem too pushy. His cheeks went red as he comprehended the answer, and seemed to know exactly what I was thinking with the next thing he said. "So… I don't want to seem really pushy, but what are you up to now?" he smiled, but quickly shifting his glance to the rips in his jeans. I smiled, thinking that I was going to wake up soon because this was all too amazing. "I'm not doing anything," I said, his glance shifting back to my eyes with a grin. "If you want to go and grab a coffee or something, I'll go and get my jacket." He seemed to like the idea as he laughed, "that sounds like exactly the right answer," he said, his confidence returning now that I had agreed. "Ok, hang on, I'll be back in a minute," I said, half running, half walking up the path.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Ash shouted at me, laying on the grass with Luke running and jumping over her. "Sorry Ash, I'll do bedtime tonight, promise!" I shouted back, running into the house and up the stairs. I reached the bedroom and tugged open the door, ran up to my bed and bent down so I could get my suitcase out. I pulled it out and unzipped it, wanting to save as much time as I could. I pulled out the clothes, searching for a hoodie that I could wear. I finally opted for a black one with a pair of angel wings on the back in a spray paint design that Ash had made for a birthday present a couple of years ago. I tugged it on as I ran back down the stairs, grabbing my bag which was hanging from a peg near the door.

I pulled the front door open again and ran down the path again, back to the gate where Frank was waiting, grinning. "Well, well, Luke, it's no secret who's going on a date now, is it?" I heard Ash laugh loudly, still lying on the grass, although now Luke was lying next to her, chatting away to himself, presuming she was listening. I reached the gate and opened it, slowing down when I finally got to Frank. "You got everything then?" he asked me, as we started to walk down the road.

"Yeah, I think so," I said, looking through my bag to check my phone was in there. "Where abouts is the nearest coffee house anyway?" I asked, still hearing the laughs of Ash coming from the front garden. "It's about a ten minute walk," he said. "It's kind of on the outskirts of town," he finished, gently taking hold of my hand. He looked at me as if to question if that was the right thing to do, so I smiled and held his back, making it so our arms gently swung as we walked along. "So you're in a band then?" I asked, as we got to the turnings at the end of the road and took the left.

"Yeah, I play rhythm guitar," he said, a smile in his voice.

"Oh cool," I smiled back, "That's what Ash started off as in the band, when we had a different singer, but then she left and we found out Ash had an amazing voice," I laughed.

"She seems like an awesome person, or at least Gerard seemed to think so," he laughed. I noticed we were getting closer to the town because there were more cars and people around as we walked down the street. I noticed a few shops popping up every so often as well, they were only small though, we hadn't reached any chains yet. "He definitely seemed to," I giggled. "It's always hard with Ash though, she finds it hard to deal with people, after well… everything," I said vaguely, but Frank nodded, knowing what I meant. "Yeah, I mean, that's perfectly understandable. Her ex seemed to be a complete dick though," he laughed, not meaning it in a harsh way, or judging Ash at all.

"We all noticed that, shame it was just way before she did, and by the time she realised what she'd got herself into, she'd fallen for him," I said, shaking my head slightly to get my hair out of my face. Frank slowed down a little, and I looked up to see that we were outside a small coffee shop, painted a dark red with Italian writing in places on the wall. Frank smiled. "Might not look like much, but they do an amazing cappuccino in here," he laughed, leading me in. We took a seat at either side of a small table near the window. He smiled at me, and I got a chance to look into his deep hazel eyes as much as I wanted now. A waitress interrupted my gaze as she walked up to take our drinks order, a small notepad in her left hand.


	33. Chapter 19

Gerard's POV:

Me and Mikey walked up the thin path to our front door. I trudged up the steps to the door and fumbled for the key on the chain around my neck. I tugged it off and unlocked the door, kicking it open as I put the chain back on over my head. I walked in the door and kicked off my shoes at the mat. I heard the door shut behind Mikey and started walking up the stairs near the front of the hallway. "Hey, I'm gonna go listen to some music in my room," I said, turning back to Mikey who smiled as an answer. I carried on up the stairs to the landing where I went through one of the big white doors into my room. I went to my CD rack and picked out an early Green Day one and placed it in my CD player. The first track came on and I flopped onto my bed, thinking about the gig and last night. I was tired as hell but couldn't sleep, mainly because of what had happened with Ash. I was worried she thought I was going too fast, and I didn't want to seem pushy. It was just last night… what I had done had felt like the right thing, but it was hard to know, mainly because I'd never really been in that kind of a situation with a girl, let alone a girl I really liked. I must've been there for about an hour and a half, the CD just repeating itself over. I felt myself falling asleep slowly as the lyrics of the songs all merged together until they faded, and my eyes closed, everything slipping away as I fell asleep.

Ash's POV:

The day was getting later, and I noticed the light getting darker. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. 4:21pm. Wow, time really does go fast when you're playing Star Wars with a hyperactive four year old. I called out to him and he came running up the porch steps as I opened the front door. I had left him to his own devices for about five minutes, and even by then he had painted war paint on his face with mud, but it could also have passed as cat whiskers. I laughed when I saw him and lead him inside. "Ok, you got to go wash yourself up, and I'm going to make you some dinner," I said, smiling at him.

"Hokey dokey," he said, partly in his own little world, but making his way up to the bathroom. I walked down the hallway and through the second door on the right hand wall, walking into a spacious, tiled kitchen. I looked through the cupboards, trying to find some things to make a quick meal with. I pulled out a few tins from the cupboard and put them in a saucepan on the stove. I read the directions on the side of the tin and put some pasta on while the tins of Bolognese sauce were cooking.

I walked through a door which joined the kitchen to the living room and found the others all hanging around watching Nightmare on Elm Street. "You're gonna have to turn that off soon, Luke's back inside," I laughed, as they all groaned. "Who wants food anyway, it'll be ready in about five minutes," I smiled, sitting on the arm of one of the sofas as Ryan moved towards the TV to turn it off. "Ooh, I think we're all starving," Will laughed, everyone else nodding vaguely as they watched the last killing scene before Ryan quickly switched off the TV as a completely oblivious Luke walked in. "Hey, dinner's going to be in about 5," I called to him, as I went through the door back into the kitchen and shut it behind me. I reached into one of the cupboards to get out six plates and lined them up on the side. I heard the front door close and I almost ran to the hallway, laughing at Lauren's blushing cheeks and dragging her into the kitchen after me. "I think me and you are gonna need to have one of our bedtime chats, aren't we," I giggled, getting another plate out of the cupboard.

"Maybe," she giggled, her cheeks going red again.

"I need to know everything," I laughed, being my usual nosey self as I put the food on the plates and placed them on the table. "Dinner's ready!" I shouted through the door, giving Lauren an all knowing smile as I placed the cutlery in the middle of the table and we both sat down.


	34. Chapter 20

Lauren's POV:

We must've laid there for hours talking in the dark, huddled up in our different beds. I looked forward to living with Ash, just because it meant being able to talk to someone all the time and staying up late chatting. We talked about loads of things, but mainly my day with Frank and arrangements for tomorrow about Hayley and Will going home. It was well after one before we finally got to sleep, and the house around us had seemed deadly silent. An alarm had been set for half ten, just in case we weren't up by then, and knowing Ash she would need it.

I woke up at about ten the next morning, sitting up in bed slowly as I realised Ash was still asleep. I climbed out from under the covers and went through my clothes, deciding to wear a pair of black skinny jeans and a white t-shirt with free hugs printed on it. I pulled them on and stuffed my pyjamas back in my bag. I walked over to the door slowly and pulled it open, making sure it didn't make too much noise as it closed behind me. I made my way downstairs, dreading what I would be faced with. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into the living room and found everyone sitting around on the sofas, watching Lord of The Rings together. "Morning Lauren," Scott piped up, giving me a grin. "Morning," I said, dozily, flopping onto the sofa next to him. "You going to eat anything?" Hayley asked, her eyes moving from the screen to my face. "Not just yet, I'll wait until Ash gets up," I laughed. I was thinking that this time tomorrow me and Ash would be facing a new school with new people together. At least Frank and the guys would be there though, and she would have Gerard as well as me. The thought of that comforted me a little, but I knew she was going to find it hard, I knew she hated school as it was, but Frank had told me that high school was just plain vicious.

I heard her footsteps as she walked down the stairs and walked into the living room. She hadn't changed out of her infamous Green Day tour t-shirt and pyjama bottoms, but she still had the drop dead gorgeous looks about her. She went up to the mirror on the wall and started trying to sort out her hair, but gave up and came to perch on the side of the sofa.

"You want to grab something to eat?" I asked her, she still looked half asleep, but I knew it would wear off soon and she would be wide awake. "Yeah, sounds good," she smiled, walking with me into the kitchen. I pulled out a box of cereal, two bowls and some spoons as she got out a bottle of milk from the fridge. We both heard laughing from the other room and smiled at each other. We both knew that we had crazy friends, but we loved them for it. It made them fit in. Hayley walked in with a serious expression on her face, her hair all messed up, but the look quickly faded and turned into a grin as she giggled. "Me and Will were thinking of making a move soon, because we don't want to miss our flight," she smiled, although I hated that we even had to talk about it. I wanted her to stay here, be part of our messed up little family, but I knew she couldn't. "Sound's like a good idea," I said, eating a spoonful of cereal. "Yeah, can I borrow the phone so we can call a cab?" she asked, looking from me to Ash. "Yeah, it's just over here," Ash said, reaching over to where the kettle was and grabbing the phone from its cradle. She passed it to Hayley who looked at the number she had written on her arm. She dialled it, and then we watched as she waited for someone to pick up the phone. "Hi, I was just wandering if someone could pick us up and take us to Belleville airport?" she asked, rolling her eyes at me as the person on the other end of the phone took their time. "It's 49 Summer Boulevard," she said, trying not to laugh. "Ok, 15 minutes sounds great, thank you," she burst out laughing as she hung up and passed the phone back to Ash. "He had such a weird voice, it was so hard to take him seriously," she giggled. I placed the empty bowl of cereal on the side next to Ash's and we all walked back into the living room. "How long you looking to wait then?" I asked, perching on the side of one of the sofas.

"He said ten to fifteen minutes, which isn't too bad." We stood around in the front room talking, and the fifteen minutes seemed to go so much quicker than I had expected. We heard the taxi beep its horn outside and we all walked to the front door, where the bags had been piled that morning. "Bye bye you guys," Will said, hugging each of us in turn then grabbing her bags to go and place them in the taxi. "Yeah, I had an amazing time, hope we can do it again sometime soon," Hayley smiled. She enveloped us all in tight hugs as she said her goodbyes, and then they both walked over to the taxi as I held the door open. We all waved frantically as the taxi started off, and only then did we begin to realise that would be the last time we would see them for months.


End file.
